How do I tell what breed my baby chicks are??

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Mandacarly

In the Brooder
May 2, 2022
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I just hatched my first two baby chicks. They were born healthy and happy. It's been a learning experience for sure!! And I have so much more to learn!! I didn't know it was possible to spoil chickens. Well, my chicks will only go to sleep if they are swaddled and held or placed in a snug fit place so they don't know they've been put down. Lolol
 
Welcome to BYC! You can post pictures of them in the What Breed Or Gender forum. They'll need clear pictures of the head, body, and legs if possible and you should take them in natural light- not under a red brooder light. You can also ask how people can tell- I've learned a lot about the different breeds from that!
Congrats on the new fluff nuggets!
 
How do I tell what breed my baby chicks are??
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Since you hatched the chicks, start with what you know about their parents. If you know both parents were a certain breed, then the chicks are the same breed. If the parents were different breeds, the chicks are mixed breeds. They can be identified by the two parent breeds, or called "barnyard mix" or "mutt" or any other word with a similar meaning.

If you do not know the breeds of the parents, you might know some possibilities. A list of "this rooster breed, and these four hen breeds," plus a photo of the chicks, is often enough for people on this forum to figure it out.

Knowing what color egg they hatched from also helps. Most chicken breeds lay specific egg colors. White, brown, blue/green are the main categories. Brown and Green come in many shades, some of which are associated with certain breeds.

You can look at pictures of baby chicks that are labeled according to their breed.
Hatcheries are often a good resource for this.
--Meyer hatchery has a chick identification page:
https://meyerhatchery.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360009871752-Day-Old-Chick-Identification
--McMurray hatchery usually has chick photos on the page for each breed, and often has a video with tips for recognizing that particular breed. If you have a chick that looks like several breeds, that might help you sort it out. Some details are obvious only after you know about them.

Some chick breeds look alike at hatch, but are easier to identify after they have grown some feathers. But some chicks will confuse you by growing feathers with one pattern of colors first, then molting those feathers and growing ones with a different pattern when they are adults. Those can be tricky when they are young!

Particular points to look at when identifying breeds:
--general color
--foot color
--kind of comb
--whether the chick has fuzzy feet, extra toes, crest on the head, muff/beard on the face
--if the chick has normal-textured feathers, or if they are fuzzy/hairy or curled funny
--specific patterns of colors in the chick down, or in the feathers
--earlobe color
--what color eggs a hen lays
--size/weight

Many places give descriptions of chicken breeds, telling such details. Hatchery web pages are one of my favorite sources, but other sources exist too.

You can also post photos of the chicks on this forum, in the section "What Breed or Gender is this?" You might get an immediate identification, or you might get told that lots of breeds look like that as chicks, and you should post more photos when they are several weeks old. The really confusing ones can take several months, even with the experts giving opinions, but there are many breeds that can be confidently identified when they are pretty young.
 

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