I was told these eggs were Red Sex Links but when they hatched...

[MamaJillian]

...clearly they are not. Can you help me identify them? I rented the incubator and purchased the eggs from our local cooperative extension office and was told that the dozen I got were all Red Sex Links. Some are, but some are not. Here are photos of the three that are not.

Thank you for any help you can give me!

This one is reddish brown, stripey, and has feathered feet. I have 3 buff brahmas from another set of eggs (different farm) and this one is darker than they, although they too have feathered feet.




This one is light yellow with feathered feet. Until I saw the feathered feet, I thought it was a Red Sex Link.




This one is my favorite so far - docile and seems to enjoy being held. It's plumper and rounder than the others I have. Light yellow with thin black stripes down the back and a black spot on the head. I'll post a photo of the head too.




The head:

 

[Lothiriel]

The ones with feathered legs could be Brahmas or Cochins.
The one with the chipmunk pattern looks like it has a small muff on its face. Am I right?

 

[akcountrygrrl]

Sex link is not a breed. It is meant to describe breeding a specific purebred roo to a specific purebred hen so that the offspring are sexable by color at birth. There are several combinations that can make sex link birds so chicks could have feathered legs, pea combs, etc. Breeding sex link birds together will not give you sex link chicks. I'm guessing you probably have a bunch of barnyard crosses that will make lovely layers when they grow up. Maybe you could double check with CES and see if they have a listing of where they got their eggs from and what the possible breeds are...

 

[MamaJillian]

Thanks for your reply. The chipmunk one is bigger and rounder than the others. It does have some fluff around the neck and face. It is very docile. Would love to know what it is.

 

[MamaJillian]

Thanks. I was told that they were all going to be Red Sex Links and I would be able to tell after hatching which was male and female. It was explained what the parent chickens would be - the rooster was a RI red or so and the hen something else. Apparently this was not the case with all of them! Now I am left wondering what the ones that are not the Sex Links are. The ones that I believe are Red Sex Links are either light yellow (male) or light brown with 2 red stripes down the back (female). None of those have feathered legs.

 

[hdowden]

can you get a group pic in good lighting to show their color better...might have ee in them...red sex links require a pure breed red chicken (rir are used a lot) and a pure breed white chicken (cackle hatchery uses delewares) so the rir could have been put over a white cochin or some other white breed or some red rooster of some white hen then again you could have gotten some eggs from some other breed to help fill your order