Illinois...

[Faraday40]

Out of all the beautiful chicks, DD's silkies are her favs

The middle one with the large vault & cheeks is her fav. Sadly it also has a pink toe which I know it should not have.


The other two do not have the typical silkie heads, but do have the black skin & 5 toes.


This one looks black until I get very close. Might be developing brown highlights. It also has a different stance. Tail goes upward instead of out. (Can easily see it in the 1st pic with all 3.) Not sure if it's a gender difference, b/c this is our 1st time with silkies.





The last one also looked black, but now looks like it may be developing barring.

 

[Faraday40]

Opps. I just realized that I didn't share my lav orps. Feel free to guess at genders. I kept them in the same order.



Left: Has largest comb but thinnest legs

Middle: Has nice feather growth, smallest comb, but thickest legs & standing the tallest

Right: I don't like the beak. Moose & his parents have nice dark beak & legs, so perhaps there's something recessive in Sweetie's genes. Sweetie is HUGE, our biggest orp hen, & looked like a male chick due to her early pink comb. I'm always scratching my head when trying to guess the gender of any of Sweetie's chicks! However, she's the kids' favorite lav orp. Hard not to love a sweet, friendly 10+ lb hen that lays jumbo eggs.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

If anyone is south, near St. Louis and interested, my 4 hour beginner chicken class at Meramec Community College is coming up a week from this Saturday.
St Louis Community College It is from 10AM-2PM on March 25. Science West, room 108.
$35
Call 314 984-7777 to register.
A former student wrote, "Great class! If you are thinking about having chickens or are getting chicks this spring, we highly recommend it!!"

 

[Junibutt]

More chick pics:
@Junibutt
Here are Oopsie's chicks. (She has a 3rd one, but It's leg band fell off.) The blue one acts pretty friendly & DD likes it - which has always meant: rooster. However, its sibling looks about the same. Can't guess on gender yet.





Also can't tell if blue has a very slight head spot / barring. Oopsie's the only Orp that could make a blue chick. If it's barred, then Brick would have to be the father.

Close up of blue orp's wings. What do you think?



I only have one chick that I truly feel is a male. (I think it may be a Bielefelder mix, because it just has that shape. I'm pretty sure it's not a purebred black cuckoo orp & therefore likely a male biele x orp mix.) If anyone wants him, he's free. He'd make a good-sized dinner in the future. Both Bieles & orps are very docile & grow XL. Bieles grow a little faster and males seem to take about 5 months to crow.

Nice chicks. Hard to tell at this point whether the blue one is split feather or just slow growth. Also the faint dot may not mean anything because I don't see barring at this point.

 

[Faraday40]

Nice chicks. Hard to tell at this point whether the blue one is split feather or just slow growth. Also the faint dot may not mean anything because I don't see barring at this point.

Sharp eye! DD helped me take a better pic of the wings. I held them out as straight as I could. Can a chicken have split feather in only one wing or is it usually in both? The left wing looks a little off when spread, but they just started growing wings a few days ago. He/she holds them normally when running about.

 

[Junibutt]

I only suspected because one of the double barred choc cuckoos chickendreams24 got from me had split wings. But with the 2nd picture it looks fine at the moment. Maybe its too early to tell. Also his/her blue is paler than the blue my flock has so we will have to wait & see what this one grows up to look like.

 

[ChicagoClucker]

Here are a couple of pics of the recessive white chick from @Junibutt last year that had the split wing for comparison if needed.




Faraday, the chicks are all adorable. Even though, some may have been a mix up from your order, they are all adorable. I really want to know what those chicks end up to be. I bet Welsummer, not that I have any experience with them, but that is my best guess.

 

[Faraday40]

Faraday, the chicks are all adorable. Even though, some may have been a mix up from your order, they are all adorable. I really want to know what those chicks end up to be. I bet Welsummer, not that I have any experience with them, but that is my best guess.

Well, I sent out the SS pics to other threads & a few have confirmed SS.

However, on closer inspection, we have ONE chick that looks a little different.
Most of the SS look like the chick on the right. They have the light "butter belly" (as some one called it) all the way up to their beaks. The one on the left has a brown neck.

The legs are "close" in color, but the chick on left also has a little more yellow- color to her legs.

Again, the left chick has a different color in between the 3 stripes. (Side stripes are covered by their wings already.)

It COULD simply be variation among indiv. chicks, or I could have one chick of a different breed.

The goal is to keep one speckled sussex & sell the rest.
Guess I'll have to keep at least TWO of them to find out what they are!!! I honestly would like to try out a brown leghorn & a Welsummer to add more variety to our egg basket. I only ordered the SS because I was being good & trying to keep the chicken number down. Darn chicken math!!

* I must also add that these are hatchery chicks, so the quality & standard color traits may not apply to them.

 

[ChicagoClucker]

I think that is a great reason to keep at least 2, lol. Chicken Math. Welsummers were on my list also. Pretty eggs! But I quenched that thirst, once the marans began laying. They give me some dark eggs and some even have the dark speckles like the welsummers.

I also spoke to someone at the Kankakee fairgrounds today after playing some phone tag and I will most definitely be going on April 2nd. Sounds kind of dangerous though, I will have to leave my wallet at home.

 

[cavemanrich]

Found this good reading especially for this time of the year when everyone is raising chicks.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/...-about-medicated-chick-starters#post_18205103
Chickendreams24 , you mentioned in the past that you encountered coccidiosis . This may be a way out. I really like post #2 the way things are explained.