Production Black?

[cucullu]

We've had two hens for the past year, and yesterday we purchased three day-old chicks. One is an aracauna and the other two I was told are "production blacks". I haven't been able to find out anything about this breed, if, indeed, it is a breed. I was told it is a sex link. Any information about production blacks--how big they get, what the hens look like as adults, how well they lay? My chicks are black with a cream spot on the head, under the beak, at the base of the wings, and on the rump. I'd post a picture, but I'm too much of a luddite to be bothered to figure it out.

 

[LilPeeps]

Sounds like just a regular black sex link. There's some info on sex links here:

http://feathersite.com/Poultry/CGP/Sex-links/BRKSexLink.html

 

[cucullu]

Thanks for your reply. When I got home from the feed and seed where I got them, I spent some time lookng them up on my computer, and was horrified that every time I found a chick that looked similar, it was a male. When I bought them, I was assured they were female, and when I called the store after my research, they again assured me that they are female. We are already deeply and abidingly in love with our "girls", Wanda, Vicky, and Richard (my son, Harry, thinks Richard is a beautiful girl name), and we'd hate to find we have to part with any of them.

 

[LilPeeps]

Do you have pics of them you can post? If their feathers are coming in barred, you have males, if black, they're females.

 

[Pine Grove]

Production Blacks are basically a Barred Leghorn, Both Male and Female are barred. They have the white ear lobe also

 

[Wolf-Kim]

Pine Grove has it right. Production Blacks are a basically a barred leghorn. They are bred for the production of white eggs, but are barred. They are not a sexlink or hybrid, they breed true and both male and female are barred. I think Ideal or McMurray sells them.

-Kim

 

[cucullu]

thanks everyone. I checked McMurray and the pictures look just like Wanda and Richard. One site said that legs that are dark in the front are usually found on pullets. I hope that's true. My kids would be so sad if it turned out that Wanda and Richards were roosters and we had to get rid of them.