Not sure of their breed anymore...

[AgentJeffy]

So I had purchased these birds from Tractor Supply on Feb 27 of this year. And I had initially thought they were leghorns but now I'm not so sure... Any ideas? They haven't laid yet so I can't tell you their egg color either... One of them has very light brown (spots?) on their feathers too. You should be able to see them in the pictures. Thanks for any help everyone!

 

[KikiLeigh02]

I think they may all be Amberlinks. It may just be the lighting in the photo, but they all look to have some brown patches on them. If they're actually solid white they're probably White Plymouth Rocks. They'll lay brown eggs either way.

 

[AgentJeffy]

Only one of them has decently visible brown light spots on him/her. I'll try to get better pictures here in a little bit. I just fed them so they're in full forage mode lol.

I think that's mostly the lighting, I'm sorry, I tried to get a picture with lots of light.

But either way they'd be good layers? I let them free range (as you can probably tell in the picture ) and they've been pretty good chickens so I'd like to keep them for their initial purpose...

Any idea what the gender might be? They're all about 5 months old at this point.

 

[GoldenChooks]

@AgentJeffy Just a tip, you can tell if it is a leghorn if they have white earlobes

 

[KikiLeigh02]

All pullets! I love my Amberlinks, they're a production hybrid so they lay really well. White Rocks are supposed to be good layers too, but I don't have any experience with them. My Amberlinks were supposed to be Leghorns too , I could tell they weren't Leghorns for sure at about 10 weeks, so I thought White Rock, then at 12 weeks they got their brown patches and I settled on Amberlinks.

 

[AgentJeffy]

@AgentJeffy Just a tip, you can tell if it is a leghorn if they have white earlobes

Yeah, unfortunately they have red earlobes so I guess Leghorns are out. Dangit, well maybe next year. Thank you for the tip though, that will help next time.

All pullets! I love my Amberlinks, they're a production hybrid so they lay really well. White Rocks are supposed to be good layers too, but I don't have any experience with them. My Amberlinks were supposed to be Leghorns too , I could tell they weren't Leghorns for sure at about 10 weeks, so I thought White Rock, then at 12 weeks they got their brown patches and I settled on Amberlinks.

Thank God, I was skeptical as can be getting straight-run but apparently I got good luck at picking out chicks lol. I hope they're good layers, they were meant to be a cross between a practical food source (eggs) and a backyard pet to keep me company doing yard-work. I'm pretty sure they were listed as Leghorns at TSC, but that could just be because they were hectic as can be during "chick days" lol. So far only one has the brown patch, but that hen was the first to mature so perhaps the rest will follow suit

About how old were yours when they started laying? I had been expecting them to lay at ~6 months like leghorns, but now I got no clue.

 

[snow5164]

I’d go back to where you bought them . Hybrid birds have a short laying life and don’t live very long , I’d go make a stink about not getting what you paid for .

They are beautiful birds

 

[AgentJeffy]

I would perhaps, but it's been months at this point and I definitely don't have the receipt for them anymore...

And thank you, they're all growing up to be quite a photogenic (if not roudy) bunch

They keep bouncing back and forth between liking their coop I built for them and favoring trees or the fence line to sleep on lol. One of them has decided she loves the coop, but not inside of it like the rest. She just perches on the top each night to sleep.

 

[KikiLeigh02]

I want to say mine started laying around 20 weeks. So hopefully you'll have eggs soon, have you checked around to make sure they aren't hiding eggs from you now?

 

[AgentJeffy]

If they are then they're really good at hide and seek. I've been checking all over the place but haven't seen anything yet. I've checked all the places they like to hang out at. And I of course check the coop daily.

This is an older picture of them when they were first getting adapted to the coop.