Now that they're a little older....what are they?

[tbmorgan]

Hi all,

I posted about 2 weeks ago, wondering what my little mystery bantams from TSC are. A couple of them got really mixed replies, indicating to me that at that age, it was too difficult to figure out. They are now just over 2 weeks old and starting to feather in enough that I think (hope) that it will be easier to identify them. I'm putting the newborn pic first, followed by the 2 week pic.

Here goes.

Chick #1




Chick #2




Chick #3




This one looks kind of like a Silkie, but has light colored skin and no sign of a crest.

Any ideas??

Thanks,
Katja

 

[MySweetChickens]

chick 3 is definitely a poorly bred silkie

chick 2 is a production red I think and as for chick one i dont know

 

[21hens-incharge]

I do not see silkie in any of them. I see cochins. (not a bit of black skin on them there legs and 4 toes)
The first one looks to be a barred cochin.
The second looks to be a red cochin. (possibly a male)
The third a Buff.
Cute little buggers.
Best rooster I ever knew was a red cochin bantam.

 

[tbmorgan]

The 3rd chick has 5 toes and very strange feathers.

 

[Indyshent]

Chick three doens't have black skin, but it does have silked feathers (those certainly don't look normal to me) and five toes. It's a silkie (just not show quality).

First two are likely Cochins or, for the first one, possibly a Dark Brahma. It might be coming in birchen, but it doesn't have the spot on the top of its head that barred should have. Second one is a crapshoot on color. Started out buff, but looks like it's going red.

 

[keesmom]

The 3rd chick has 5 toes and very strange feathers.

This is the second or third chick like this I have seen posted recently. All came from TSC, and all were bantams. I think all were buff too. Does s/he have yellow legs?

Here is a thread on a similar looking chick.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/955933/have-you-seen-this-chick

 

[tbmorgan]

I went over and looked at that other thread, Keesmom, and that chick does indeed look a lot like mine, but it has "normal" feathers. Mine's got silkie-type feathering coming in....very frayed and fuzzy looking.

I dunno.

I thought the big commercial hatcheries bred "pure" (albeit poor quality) chickens, but at least something recognizable as the breed that it is supposed to be. This chick looks for all the world like an outright mix of different breeds. I haven't been able to find anything like it in any description of any chicken breed. It has a mish-mash of characteristics. My oh-so-helpful TSC can't even tell me which hatchery they came from, so I can't even track and research it that way.

 

[BantamLover21]

Chick three doens't have black skin, but it does have silked feathers (those certainly don't look normal to me) and five toes. It's a silkie (just not show quality).

First two are likely Cochins or, for the first one, possibly a Dark Brahma. It might be coming in birchen, but it doesn't have the spot on the top of its head that barred should have. Second one is a crapshoot on color. Started out buff, but looks like it's going red.

x2

 

[Wyandottes7]

Chick three doens't have black skin, but it does have silked feathers (those certainly don't look normal to me) and five toes. It's a silkie (just not show quality).

First two are likely Cochins or, for the first one, possibly a Dark Brahma. It might be coming in birchen, but it doesn't have the spot on the top of its head that barred should have. Second one is a crapshoot on color. Started out buff, but looks like it's going red.

x3

 

[Indyshent]

Not all silkies have crests and sometimes black skin takes awhile to come in (or you may have a hypomelanistic mutant/throwback on your hands). Because hatcheries have the breeds segregated into completely different pins, it's unlikely it's a mixed breed, though it may be a very poor quality pure breed. I'd imagine that it would be difficult for birds to successfully mate through hardware cloth, but I guess anything's possible (though not likely).