I have a couple of hens I am unsure of breed, can you ID?

[cutlass1972]

I took in a couple of hens from someone that where pretty neglected. I nursed them back to healthy. I woul dlike to know if anyone can ID their breed? One of these birds is laying a light teal green egg, I would like to know which one it is?

here is the first one.

here is the second one

 

[marymac]

The first one looks like an EE to me except for the comb, she is probably your teal egg layer.

 

[lauralou]

I have a (very) young hen who looks a lot like the first bird. She is a cross between a classic hatchery Easter Egger hen and a Welsummer roo. So I'd also suspect that bird to be the one laying the teal egg. It's really hard to say what those ladies are. Probably barnyard mixes. Fine birds! Some of my favorites are barnyard mixes, also known as Designer Chickens.

 

[cutlass1972]

she has no beard either. She very well could be a mutt. She is VERY prone to laying shellless eggs. If I do not mix oyster shell in with their food, she will not eat it on her own and will lay jelly eggs or just plop them out on the ground while everyone else comes to eat them. I think she is a rather old hen, though I don't know.

 

[cutlass1972]

Quote:
welsummer had crossed my mind. In the group of hens I got from that fellow there where 3 that looked just like that one. 2 of them got killed by raccoons, but until then I was getting one pink egg, one teal egg, and one dark brown egg per day. I wonder if they are EE / welsummer mixes.

 

[lauralou]

My little EE/Welsummer mix doesn't have beard and muffs either. Nor does she have a pea comb. It's a single comb like her daddy's. I had assumed that she would lay a brown egg when she got old enough because I keep hearing that the pea comb gene and the blue egg gene are so closely situated on the chromosome. But maybe not. Time will tell. The pictures of the second bird are a little blurry, but it looks like she has a single comb too. Am I right about that? Is her comb the same as the first bird's?

As far as the age of the hens, well, the rooster damage to the feathers makes a hen look older. I have two hens with rooster burn on their backs, and everyone thinks they are old hens. One is, one isn't. Nobody ever guesses that my oldest hen is old, because her feathers are perfect and she's very beautiful. Funny how that works.

What's up with the shelless eggs? How strange. Keep mixing that oyster shell into the food!

 

[cutlass1972]

yes, the little orange hen has a single comb.

The messed up bum feathers are actually from the other hens. I had to coop them all up for a few months back in winter because of hawk problems. there was some tail feather picking going on, she pretty much got it the worst. most of the feathers grew back but she still hasn't fully recovered.

 

[aussieheelr]

both mixes and looks like they both have scaley mites.

 

[tnchickenut]

red one may be a New Hampshire. The first one some sort of EE mix, I'd say. My best guesses.

 

[cutlass1972]

Quote:
I think they DID have scaley mites. They where in pretty bad shape when I got them from a local fellow. This guy insisted that I leave salt out for them or they wouldnot lay eggs if that tells you what kind of chicken owner he was. He claimed they where 2 years old when I bought them from him, and after I gave them wormer then some good food (he was feeding them a strict diet of cracked corn) they increased their weight by 1/3 and one of them turned into a rooster magically. The only thing I can thinkof is either 1 they arent as old as he told me or 2 they where so undernourashed they could not develope properly.

I have treated them for every kind of parasite you can think of including spraying their feet with frontline and at a few weeks later coating their legs with bag balm. I have wondered why their legs havent gotten any better LOOKING, but I think it is because they haven't yet molted.

If I am wrong that they don't look better yet because they havent molted let me know, if they still have scaley mites I want to fix it.