I May Be Imagining Things

[JacinLarkwell]

Here's the pullet I have too. She has some more feathers than her brother with the barring.

 

[3KillerBs]

I'll try to get another photo or two today. Chicks change so fast -- it looked last night as if the tail were also barred. Maybe.

 

[The Moonshiner]

Do they sell a sapphire gem type of blue sex link?

 

[3KillerBs]

Do they sell a sapphire gem type of blue sex link?

Nothing labeled Sapphire Gem or Blue Sex-link. There's something called a Blue Plymouth Tint, which was on my "wanted" list but was supposedly not available on any of the dates that they were hatching Blue Australorps.

https://www.welphatchery.com/layer-type-chicks/blue-plymouth-tint-straight-run/

 

[3KillerBs]

OK, it's a boy! Look at that comb for 12 days old.

First notable comb in the batch when I know I ordered 5 straight-run Blue Australorps, of which I hope that at least one is male since I'd like to breed some of them.

 

[Painted Calls]

OK, it's a boy! Look at that comb for 12 days old.

First notable comb in the batch when I know I ordered 5 straight-run Blue Australorps, of which I hope that at least one is male since I'd like to breed some of them.

View attachment 2854544View attachment 2854545View attachment 2854546View attachment 2854547

Looks like a blue sex-link cockerel to me. Strange.

 

[3KillerBs]

Looks like a blue sex-link cockerel to me. Strange.

Shouldn't he have had a head spot?

Customer service telling me in February that the Blue Plymouth Tints weren't hatched on the same dates as the Blue Australorps), had me not even considering that as an option. But maybe they had so much demand that they set more eggs?

I can't see a reputable hatchery sticking a known-male-because-sex-link into an all-female assortment, so I suppose he's my 26th chick for insurance.

 

[Painted Calls]

Shouldn't he have had a head spot?

Customer service telling me in February that the Blue Plymouth Tints weren't hatched on the same dates as the Blue Australorps), had me not even considering that as an option. But maybe they had so much demand that they set more eggs?

I can't see a reputable hatchery sticking a known-male-because-sex-link into an all-female assortment, so I suppose he's my 26th chick for insurance.

He should have, yes. Be interesting to see what it looks like in another month.

 

[NatJ]

I can't see a reputable hatchery sticking a known-male-because-sex-link into an all-female assortment

Maybe he is a sexlink, and was put in your assortment of females because he did not have a head spot. So at hatch he looked female, even though he now manages to look both barred and male.

 

[NatJ]

As far as I can find out, Welp doesn't have blue barred or blue cuckoo anything

I find Blue Cuckoo Marans:
https://www.welphatchery.com/layer-type-chicks/maran-blue-cuckoo-female/

And of course there are the Blue Plymouth Tint you already noticed:
https://www.welphatchery.com/layer-type-chicks/blue-plymouth-tint-female/

So that's at least two choices for blue barred males, and one choice (Marans) for a blue barred female.