MamaLovesJoy
Chirping
- Sep 9, 2020
- 10
- 32
- 59
Hi new friends!
I need help identifying one of my nine week old pullets. She’s a mystery-chicken (to me).
A little back story - we ordered our first chicks and they arrived early July. There was a mix up with USPS and they took twice as long to get our girls to us, and they ripped the label off someone else’s box and added it to our shipment. So we got two boxes of chicks: more than half of which were no longer alive upon arrival.
We knew for sure the breeds in our box, but there were several breeds in this other box that LOOK similar to the ones we ordered but aren’t (for instance, we ordered Cuckoo Marans and we have them plus P.Barred Rocks, which we did not order). The hatchery has been amazing and sent us another box with all of the breeds we ordered and they were all accurate, so I don’t believe it was just an oops on their part.
So my mystery bird: She was a yellow chick with black on the top of her head and on her wings when her first little wing feathers came in. She has become progressively more red and looks VERY similar to my Rhode Island Reds. However, she has a small little peacomb and no noticeable wattles growing yet (I know they might still show up, though). She has these really pretty tiger-stripe looking feathers that showed up early and never left. My RIRs have a couple but not as dark and they appear to be phasing into having uniform dark red feathers that RIRs tend to be. She also never had the red-tipped beak that my RIRs have had since they were just a
I will post some pictures of her growth progress so you can see for yourself!
I have heard RIR, New Hampshire Red, Speckled Sussex, Barnevelder, or just a very misleading Easter Egger (which we DID order, so this is possible).
Olive at about one-two weeks old:
The one on the left, very yellow compared to my RIR. Also, no comb:
Around 4 weeks old. Head still very yellow but feathers very speckled:
Taken this afternoon. Nine weeks old. Very small peacomb & wattles (my seven-week old RIRs have surpassed her in both).
Personality/temperament wise: She is a very docile, gentle, friendly bird. She lets my five Year old son and two year old daughter pick her up. She comes and greets us when we walk into the yard. And she is an avid bug-hunter (and somewhat food aggressive
). We love her personality and would just love to have an idea of what she is/could be!
Thanks for any pointers. This is our first time with chickens and while I have researched a ton I know I still have a lot to learn!
I need help identifying one of my nine week old pullets. She’s a mystery-chicken (to me).
A little back story - we ordered our first chicks and they arrived early July. There was a mix up with USPS and they took twice as long to get our girls to us, and they ripped the label off someone else’s box and added it to our shipment. So we got two boxes of chicks: more than half of which were no longer alive upon arrival.
We knew for sure the breeds in our box, but there were several breeds in this other box that LOOK similar to the ones we ordered but aren’t (for instance, we ordered Cuckoo Marans and we have them plus P.Barred Rocks, which we did not order). The hatchery has been amazing and sent us another box with all of the breeds we ordered and they were all accurate, so I don’t believe it was just an oops on their part.
So my mystery bird: She was a yellow chick with black on the top of her head and on her wings when her first little wing feathers came in. She has become progressively more red and looks VERY similar to my Rhode Island Reds. However, she has a small little peacomb and no noticeable wattles growing yet (I know they might still show up, though). She has these really pretty tiger-stripe looking feathers that showed up early and never left. My RIRs have a couple but not as dark and they appear to be phasing into having uniform dark red feathers that RIRs tend to be. She also never had the red-tipped beak that my RIRs have had since they were just a
I will post some pictures of her growth progress so you can see for yourself!
I have heard RIR, New Hampshire Red, Speckled Sussex, Barnevelder, or just a very misleading Easter Egger (which we DID order, so this is possible).
Olive at about one-two weeks old:
The one on the left, very yellow compared to my RIR. Also, no comb:
Around 4 weeks old. Head still very yellow but feathers very speckled:
Taken this afternoon. Nine weeks old. Very small peacomb & wattles (my seven-week old RIRs have surpassed her in both).
Personality/temperament wise: She is a very docile, gentle, friendly bird. She lets my five Year old son and two year old daughter pick her up. She comes and greets us when we walk into the yard. And she is an avid bug-hunter (and somewhat food aggressive

Thanks for any pointers. This is our first time with chickens and while I have researched a ton I know I still have a lot to learn!
