I'm told RIR, but don't think so, pictures included

[Birchymm]

I came by this chick in a strange way. A vegan friend of ours received some eggs from a friend of hers and of course, instead of eating it, she incubated and hatched it! She knew we had chickens and gave it to us. I have no experience with RIR chicks, but that's what I was told it was and took it at face value. However, I happened across a pic of RIR chicks and realized that my friend was wrong. Can anyone positively ID this little guy for me?


He/she is about a month old now. I've been raising him/her with my batch of Freedom Rangers I got almost the same day. He/she is quite a bit smaller then the Freedom Rangers, but I figure that's normal since they are meat birds. Any ideas?

 

[TheTwoRoos]

And know way that is a RIR.They are red chickens(Hince Rhode Island Red.)Looks like a Cuckoo Marans.

 

[donrae]

You're right, it's not a Red anything. If so, it would be, well, red...

The color is barred. It may be a barred Rock, it may be a cuckoo Marans, chances are good it's a mixed breed with a barred parent.

Does it have feathered legs, or is that just a wonky body feather sticking out?

What color is the skin on the legs under the dark overcolor? Yellow or pink/white?

It does look like a female, that's good news!

 

[Birchymm]

Please excuse the underwear model holding my chick! Yeah, pretty happy its hen, the legs are kind of white, with a darker color on top, you can kind of see in the pic. She's got a pretty good disposition already and is a very pretty bird. I can see both a barred rock or cuckoo marans possibility. After going over some Google images, how would you tell those breeds apart?! Maybe the Rocks are a little more white striped, than the cuckoos? Hard for me to tell either way.

 

[donrae]

In good quality breeder birds it's easy to tell the two breeds apart. In hatchery stock, you're pretty much down to skin/leg color and clarity of barring. That's not always easy as some Rock hens have muddy barring from the hatchery. And, lots of hatchery cuckoo Marans don't lay an especially dark egg. Add in the possibility she's a mix, and it's really hard to say. The legs do look light, so Marans or part Marans is a possibility. In the end, though, she's going to be a pretty black and white hen that lays brown eggs

 

[drumstick diva]

pretty girl