Ordered some chicks and got one a different color?

[harleyjo]

Hi,

This is my first experience with chickens. We ordered some Black Sex Links and picked them up 3 weeks ago. We ordered 12 and we got an extra one and it was different colored. I don't know if it is a different breed, like maybe a Red or if it might be a rooster. What are your thoughts... I know it is young and we may have to wait a bit to tell for sure.

She or He is 3 weeks here.

The same chick at a week old.

 

[Break an Egg]

It looks like it could be a male welsummer or maybe a brown leghorn

 

[lotzahenz]

If I remember correctly, Black sex-links usually are black with the hackle feathers turning reddish brown for hens. I am not sure if the roo's are solid or barred, usually one of the crosses is barred so you can feather-sex them. Some hatcheries add an exotic chick to the order, could it be one of those? I think I see the greenish tint to it's legs? Do you know for sure which cross you have? You may just have a throw-back to something. Hatchery birds are hit and miss sometimes. You should have a BR X RIR? Maybe or a BR X NewHamp? OKay, just did quick search to refresh the memory: Usual cross is a barred hen crossed with a RIR roo or an New Hamp Roo. The Roos come out with white dots on the head and the hens have black heads that turn reddish brown with age. You have a cross of something else, and since they hatcheries use many different varieties to get their "special" hybrid there is no telling. I am guessing a hen though, as hens are usually the ones who get the ticking coloring, to blend with the ground when nesting.

She is beautiful and will be your Star. HenZ


OH, I noticed it's your first Post, so a Big Welcome from KY.

 

[harleyjo]

I don't know what cross they do use. I used a small hatchery close to me so I could pick them up and they get the layers from Hoover Hatchery. They are close enough to Hoover that they drive up and pick them up and then we pick them up the same day they get them from Hoover. I am less than 30 miles away from this hatchery and decided to do that rather than ship them. They raise their own broilers. I picked those up today along with 3 more black sex links layers. I lost 2 with the first group we got. The legs have always looked yellow to me on this one and she or he is definately bigger than the other chicks.

I have been told maybe a RIRed or maybe a rooster by other people. Her comb area seems a little bigger to me to than the other black chicks.

 

[ChooksChick]

I agree: Wellie or Brown Leghorn, but I'm not about to guess gender on Wellie. If yo get white earlobes you'll know it's a Leghorn at about 6 weeks. If red, then likely a Wellie, and by that time you may know sex.

 

[anniem]

Looks just like one of my BSLs. I posted a similar thing and someone posted hers that was much more buff as a little one and then had the black/gold combo, but with a lot more gold than black. Maybe it's just some recessive thing? Maybe it's not that they have to be black, but just that they are dark and solid (as opposed to the males that are dark with the spot on the head).
Unless we're all getting the same cross mixed in with our BSLs it must just be a random throw.
I'm still calling mine a BSL.
1-2weeks

8 or so weeks

 

[gordonburrito]

Ok, I'm not an expert but I do have some experience shopping for black sex links. We lost our original Black Sex Link chick Snickers to a neighbors dog attack and we had to replace the majority of our flock a long with her. We ended up buying 2 black sex links because we liked our original so much and did a lot of shopping around to find the most mature/friendliest chicks we could find. I saw everything from Black to some that were more orange. Other than the varying degrees of black they were clearly the same kind of chick. Black Sex link pullets are mutts after all. If you had a rooster, it would look like a Barred Rock. We ended up getting one that was all black and one that had more of an orange hue on her head (we call her foxy). She doesn't have quite the same amount of orange as yours but she is clearly the same breed as her sister. I really think you just have an oddball black sex link pullet there. It does have a lot of orange, but it is part rhode island red afterall.

 

[gordonburrito]

Here are some picture for comparison, all BSL chicks

Snickers

Scrappy

Foxy

 

[harleyjo]

Ok, well it sounds like it still could be a black sex link then. Good to know and I will say this as the other chicks are feathering out more I am seeing more variations in their colors that make the odd one not look as odd anymore. Thanks everyone!

 

[gryeyes]

I am just amazed at the amount of change in colors as chicks feather out. (I first thought my Silver Sebright chicks had dirty heads from the feed store bin experience, but then realized there were black feathers coming in, slowly, among the white. They look less like baby Bald Eagles than they did as week old chicks.... now that they're about four weeks old.) And the change in my other breeds, too! Such a difference.