Identifying maybe-sapphire-sky and maybe-blue-plymouth-rocks

[MyCircusMyMonkeys]

Hello! I got my chickens from a breeder who's a little disorganized and hard to reach by text, and would love some help identifying some mystery cases. Theoretically we ordered buff orpingtons, two blue Plymouth rocks, four sapphire sky's, and an olive egger. We ended up with a black copper maran, so I know some chicks were misidentified—pic of our handsome Jack in case I'm wrong:

I'm also not sure what hybrid sapphire sky is, based on googling, and have lost the listing's text because they're no longer available. Does anyone here know? Please inform! Or give me an educated guess based on our chickens.

Here's Prince, and I don't know if he's a SS or a blue Plymouth but one of those two seems right:

Then we have Pepper, whose orange bits have me confused:

Persephone, who lays light blue eggs:

Dove, who also lays light blue eggs:

Summer, who seems like the same breed as Prince:

And here are some of multiple for extra angles:

(Pepper, Dove, Persephone)

(The three mystery breed boys telling Dove where to lay while the coop was closed off.)

I would happily share more pics, but for now: does anyone have an expert opinion, or a best guess?

 

[JedJackson]

Except for the Marans, they all look like they could be Sapphire Sky chickens. These are hybrids, so will be variable. They could also be Sapphire Sky mixed with something else, if the breeder is raising their own chicks. The red in a couple of roosters isn't typical of SS.

You've probably heard it before, but one rooster is more than enough for two hens. Unless the boys are pets, I would downscale to one male at most.

 

[MyCircusMyMonkeys]

Except for the Marans, they all look like they could be Sapphire Sky chickens. These are hybrids, so will be variable. They could also be Sapphire Sky mixed with something else, if the breeder is raising their own chicks. The red in a couple of roosters isn't typical of SS.

You've probably heard it before, but one rooster is more than enough for two hens. Unless the boys are pets, I would downscale to one male at most.

Oh for sure, I don't want to have this many roosters for a few hens! The boys are pets (we were new and got too attached, you can see more in my intro post) and we've been changing up their housing so we can keep them all amicably. We have more than two hens (not all of them were mysteries) but the ratio continues to be bad/a work in progress!

Do you have a guess as to where the red could come from?

 

[JedJackson]

Probably from a Legbar parent if these were hatchery bred. Sapphire Sky are supposedly a hybrid between barred Plymouth Rocks and blue Plymouth rocks, but that can't be the whole story. They often have small crests. They would come from creme Legbars, most probably, which do have some gold coloring.

 

[MyCircusMyMonkeys]

Probably from a Legbar parent if these were hatchery bred. Sapphire Sky are supposedly a hybrid between barred Plymouth Rocks and blue Plymouth rocks, but that can't be the whole story. They often have small crests. They would come from creme Legbars, most probably, which do have some gold coloring.

Thank you so much! Legbar parent—of course! It seems obvious once I googled, but I'm new to chickens so all the breeds make my head spin. Still I'm curious and very interested. Thank you for indulging my curiosity! I'll definitely quiz the farmer on what goes into his Sapphire Sky chickens when I catch him in person next. It's funny because we got Sapphire Sky chickens for the crests—we wanted chickens with little mohawks because it seemed hilarious—but then we ended up with really pretty eggs as a random side effect. Really pleased with them regardless, although the sexual dimorphism is a bit intense. The roosters seem to get twice the size of the hens at least.

 

[AnneGirlGG]

I am far too new to chickens to be of much help with your breeds, but it looks like you've gotten some great advice. They're beautiful birds!

I did want to share though, my friend built a special coop and an attached run for all her males. They live quite happily in their bachelor run, with no hens around to squabble over. That way you could happily keep all your beautiful boys. I hope they continue to behave for you!

 

[MyCircusMyMonkeys]

I am far too new to chickens to be of much help with your breeds, but it looks like you've gotten some great advice. They're beautiful birds!

I did want to share though, my friend built a special coop and an attached run for all her males. They live quite happily in their bachelor run, with no hens around to squabble over. That way you could happily keep all your beautiful boys. I hope they continue to behave for you!

We thought we might end up with a bachelor run! Are the hens completely out of sight? I'd like to keep the flock together if possible, or at least in sight of each other so they can hang out because they really do seem to like each other, but I know that might not be possible depending on how the numbers work out re: roosters to hens. Any advice or experience is much appreciated! We've taken two boys out of the main coop/run to make the numbers better and they seem happy still seeing and communicating with the others, but I don't know if they'd be happier in a different configuration.

 

[AnneGirlGG]

We thought we might end up with a bachelor run! Are the hens completely out of sight? I'd like to keep the flock together if possible, or at least in sight of each other so they can hang out because they really do seem to like each other, but I know that might not be possible depending on how the numbers work out re: roosters to hens. Any advice or experience is much appreciated! We've taken two boys out of the main coop/run to make the numbers better and they seem happy still seeing and communicating with the others, but I don't know if they'd be happier in a different configuration.

Hers aren't completely out of sight. They're kind of perpendicular to the main run, if that makes sense. Their short side, the coop end, faces the long side of the main run. Probably 25 feet away. So it's not a direct view, but not completely occluded either. They can definitely hear each other.