New to Chickens, please help with breed?

[InshoreSlam44]

I am new to the chicken game, and I am super excited…my chicks are looking really happy and healthy (at least I think they are )…I bought these in a brown laying variety pack, but I cannot tell the breed. Can anyone help me? Is it still too early to really tell?

The black one has feathered legs. The others do not. Let me know if there are other questions you have to help me ID these. I appreciate any help you can give me!

 

[sourland]

It's really too early to tell as some many breeds can look alike as chicks. Good luck with them, and update this thread as they grow.

 

[NatJ]

I bought these in a brown laying variety pack, but I cannot tell the breed....Is it still too early to really tell?

The black one has feathered legs. The others do not.

It's too early to be sure, but you can tell some things now, and can rule out quite a few possible breeds.

I can see that several have single combs. So for those you can probably rule out all breeds with other comb types (rose comb breeds do produce occasional chicks with single combs, so check those again if you find a chick that does not fit any single-comb breeds.) I cannot see the combs on some of them, but you can look. Rose combs tend to be wide and flat, even on tiny chicks, so they are fairly easy to recognize.

You can check foot color, especially on the soles of the feet. Some breeds have yellow skin and others have white skin.

Feathered legs with a single comb is probably Cochin, Langshan, or Marans.

I think the black one will grow up to be black, the gray ones will probably be "blue" (gray), and the brown ones with stripes will have both brown and black in their feathers. That rules out white breeds, buff breeds, and some others.

You can also look through pages like this one:
https://meyerhatchery.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360009871752-Day-Old-Chick-Identification

As you can see, many breeds look alike as chicks, but there are some you certainly do not have.

 

[InshoreSlam44]

All these are great tips to aid my investigation! Y’all are awesome! Thank you! I’ll keep you updated!

 

[Rhodebar Lover]

What hatchery are they from? I would guess Sapphire Gems for the blues and Marans for the black.

 

[3KillerBs]

Look at the soles of their feet to see if their skin is white or yellow. That's an important breed characteristic.

 

[InshoreSlam44]

Thank you all for your help. I am an idiot and didn’t realize that the hatchery put the breed list on the box . I have 11 chicks in total. The breeds are: 4) Pearl Star “Leghorns”, 3) Mystic Maran, and 4) Plymouth Blue.

If they were all to survive, if you were only able to keep 5 of these on the list, which would you choose and why? If it makes a difference, I live in Tampa Bay, Florida.

 

[NatJ]

...didn’t realize that the hatchery put the breed list on the box . I have 11 chicks in total. The breeds are: 4) Pearl Star “Leghorns”, 3) Mystic Maran, and 4) Plymouth Blue.

In that case, it's pretty clear: brown are the Pearl Star Leghorns, black with chance of feathers on the feet are Mystic Maran, blue (look gray) are the Plymouth Blue.

If they were all to survive, if you were only able to keep 5 of these on the list, which would you choose and why? If it makes a difference, I live in Tampa Bay, Florida.

I would most likely keep one of each, making three. That's because I like to be able to tell chickens apart by sight, and because the eggs are also likely to have a bit of variety (different shades of brown.)

For the other two, I would see which ones are your favorites as they grow, and how they get along with each other.

I would try not to keep a bully, a victim, an escape artist, or any that had health issues. Pasty butt in the first few days might not stop me from keeping a particular pullet, if she is fine after that, but anything that requires long-term management would definitely be removed from my flock. That's a personal preference, and I know that some other people do choose to keep chickens with health issues, because they want to assure the chicken a good life and they don't trust that a new owner would care enough.

 

[3KillerBs]

I always buy/hatch more than I want and select some to keep, selling the rest.

I like a variety of egg colors so I'd try to keep at least one of each, but I would consider health and vigor the #1 criteria.

Personality and ability to get on well in the flock is also important.

Since I'm breeding, I make final decisions based on my breeding goals -- "quality" in relationship to the SOP, timing of maturity, etc.

 

[3KillerBs]

I am an idiot and didn’t realize that the hatchery put the breed list on the box .

Actually, they often don't when you buy an assortment so you lucked out. It seems that they frequently package assortments after they've packed all the named-breed orders and don't bother to track what goes into what box.