Help with Welsummer identification

[BLDietz]

We recently acquired some new pullets for our flock, 6 of them being Welsummers. We didn't realize how similar they looked to some of our Whiting True Blues and now that we have them all mixed together it's hard to tell them apart. Does anyone have a sure way to differentiate them? We're unsure if we're keeping the Welsummers but we don't want to accidentally give away our Whitings so it would be good to be able to tell them apart!

 

[PioneerChicks]

Try using leg bands. There are two kinds; colored and numbered. Numbered is mostly for fair, but it can be used at home to. Make sure that as the chickens grow their leg bands don't get to tight.

 

[PioneerChicks]

To tell what breed they arw, I don't know

 

[Perris]

this is the breed standard for welsummers (UK regs), with gallery for pics
http://www.welsummer.club/ws_breedstandard.htm
can't help with the whiting though. Of course if you wait till they start laying, the wellies should lay terracotta brown eggs.

 

[BLDietz]

this is the breed standard for welsummers (UK regs), with gallery for pics
http://www.welsummer.club/ws_breedstandard.htm
can't help with the whiting though. Of course if you wait till they start laying, the wellies should lay terracotta brown eggs.

Thanks! This is something I was looking for. Egg laying is a crapshoot for identification for us lol, we have 50+ chickens and it's near impossible to keep track of who's laying.

 

[BLDietz]

Try using leg bands. There are two kinds; colored and numbered. Numbered is mostly for fair, but it can be used at home to. Make sure that as the chickens grow their leg bands don't get to tight.

This would have been ideal had we done it before putting them in the coop with the others lol. We are looking into bands though since we ended up with an accidental Whiting roo and plan to try and hatch some chicks soon!

 

[NatJ]

Welsummers have a single comb.
McMurray Hatchery says Whiting True Blue has a pea comb.

Any pea comb bird must be a Whiting True Blue, any single comb bird could be a Welsummer or an oops in the Whiting True Blues--has to do with which comb gene is dominant.

To sort by egg color (if they're laying, but you have a lot of birds)--separate one or a few birds into a cage/pen until you know what color they lay, then apply leg bands. If you need to know the egg color of a single bird but don't want her to be alone, cage her with a companion who lays different eggs (banty with large fowl, white egg layer with brown or blue layer).

 

[BLDietz]

That comb tip helped a lot when we sold a couple Welsummers the other day! Thanks! I'm attaching not the greatest picture to show my dilemma! The hen in the front is a Welsummer while the one behind it is a Whiting, they're almost identical! (Minus the comb and the whiting has gray legs you can't see).