Is this a cockerel? and other welsummer chick questions

[dikitty]

Hello!~ I'm a new chicken momma, and we got these welsummer chicks from TSC about 3 weeks ago. We're guessing they're closer to 4 weeks old considering how feathered out they are now.

Anyway, I have 2 questions. We have a couple of chicks that have some dark markings on their chest feathers. Tried to get a good shot of this with one of them.

It's kind of hard to tell in the pictures but each of the chest feathers have a dark band on the tip of them. I don't mind having cockerels but I want to make sure.

Second question: It seems there are 2 different coloring for the feathers on the chicks. Some of them are more brown colored and some dark- almost black or dark grey. Is that a usual thing with welsummers? Or did we manage to get a different breed accidentally? An example:

Any help would be appreciated. Thank you very much!

 

[Acre4Me]

They look dark! I’ve got Welsummers for the first time this year, so I’m not experienced. All three are female. Here are our females at 6 weeks:

ours are now 12 weeks old, and are for sure female.

the lighter ones look female in your pics. I’m not sure about the dark ones.

 

[dikitty]

Hm, I wondering if the ones that are grey/almost black are a different breed entirely? I wasn't there when my husband bought them from the store so there's no tellin' what breeds they were mixed in (they were also starting to get feathered)

 

[keesmom]

The first chick is a pullet. As for the color variations, it happens.

 

[Acre4Me]

Possible, but the dark ones have the right comb and leg color and similar (but darker) feathering. I can't remember if Welsummers are sex linked or not. Due to demand, it seems feed stores are offering up more straight run chicks than Ive noticed in the past...maybe these are straight run.

 

[keesmom]

Possible, but the dark ones have the right comb and leg color and similar (but darker) feathering. I can't remember if Welsummers are sex linked or not. Due to demand, it seems feed stores are offering up more straight run chicks than Ive noticed in the past...maybe these are straight run.

Well, brown Leghons have yellow legs too and the same color pattern. If the chicks have salmon chests they're pullets. Black, cockerels.

 

[dikitty]

Thanks folks <3