Is she just an odd looking black star/black sex link?

[fshrchik]

Gosh, I hope not. We've had Australorps before and did not like them - they were all very freaky birds. Well, he'll be in the stew pot if that's what he is. Hopefully one or more of the wyandottes will have been mis-sexed.

 

[Hezz]

What color are the bottoms of the feet? Are they pink, yellow, or grey like the wash on the legs?

 

[fshrchik]

The bottoms of his (?) feet are pink.

 

[Hezz]

Sounds to me like you have yourself a little Aussie. I'm sorry you don't care for them.

I have 7, and I absolutely love them. They can be skittish at times, but all in all, they are big sweethearts, especially when you hold them. That is, if you can catch em! LOL!

 

[fshrchik]

Hmmm. Well we will judge him on his own merits and not by those that went before him. LOL. We had 4 Australorps hatched out by a broody buff orpington and she also raised 5 hatchery buffs for us. The buffs were all great, but dang those silly Australorps were so dang skittish - very freaky birds. 3 of the 4 were cockerels and we were in city limits, so we couldn't keep those. The hen remained skittish. I will keep one rooster around, at least until we have a golden laced wyandotte roo.

The other thought that occurred to us is that there were some Jersey Giants present. This little fellow is as big or bigger than any of the others (supposedly all girls) in his brooder but he is way behind in feather development. If that isn't a typical roo thing (being physically bigger at this age), then he may be a Jersey Giant. When I looked at chick pictures, sheesh the Australorp, Jersey giants (black) and a few others all look the same to me and all have some variation to the looks of the chicks. I am convinced he's male though! I was suspicious before some of the replies above, but they confirmed it and since then other things have confirmed it as well (behavior, stance, etc).

Interestingly, the 3 black sex link females are nearly fully feathered and developed far faster than the red sex link/golden comet/red stars and the golden laced wyandottes. They are 4 weeks today.

 

[Hezz]

If it was in fact a Jersey Giant, it would be yellow on the bottoms of the feet. Here's any easy thing to go by to tell them apart......

Yellow bottoms = Jersey Giant
Pink bottoms = Australorp

My black sex link has grey on the bottoms, the same color as her legs. Not sure if all the BSL's are like that though, I only have one.

 

[fshrchik]

Hezz, Thank you for this information! I am learning a lot of little ID tidbits and really enjoying it!

I am bummed in that we paid more for a pullet we didn't get, and a breed we didn't get. I doubt they'd do anything about it, so that sucks. From what I've been reading on this site, that is very common. It's too bad, it really shouldn't be so hard!

 

[fshrchik]

Well, here he is all grown up. He began crowing at about 2 months of age and around 4 months of age began mounting the pullets. He dances for the girls and calls them for goodies. He gives them the alarm when needed. He is a keeper for now. My Mom named him Cisco. He is 19 weeks old in this picture.

 

[donrae]

Thanks for the update. He's quite the guy!

 

[GulfStar]

Mystery chicks are fun no matter what they turn out to be.