A guy was moving and gave me his small flock of different chickens- there are four RIR or Sexlinks- all his birds are healthy pets (the first day they were here, I had two fly up to be on my shoulders) All four of these birds look identical in that they have a "bustle" and there is no evidence of hackle or saddle feathers but one of the birds has small spurs- I am assuming this means it is a cockbird? They are not laying yet due to age and weather so I can't go by egg laying... I will try to post a picture later- it is pouring rain here. Any pointers about how to determine RIR from NH Reds or Sexlinks?
It's possible for hens to have spurs, unless you see hackle feathers or hear him crow, I'd assume them all to be hens. NH's are much lighter in color, orange really, with black tips on their tail feathers. RIR can vary a lot in color, but are supposed to be dark read and all uniform in color. Red Sex links are usually a lot lighter than RIR, but still red-based, not orange, and no darker tips on their tails.
Hens ca have spurs.Not only this,they crow too. Well lucky for you i have delt with red birds.I love red birds,and right now my farms overloaded. First to get some insite on Sexlinks head to my Insite on Red birds Forum.
x2 on this. I also wanted to add that sex links oftentimes have white in their tails, which you won't find in NHs or RIRs. For reference, here is a picture of my red sex link: She is the rightmost bird in this picture.
thank you all- from looking at pics, I am now convinced that I have RIR and that the one in question is more than likely a hen- my BO roo hasn't gone after it like he usually does when a strange roo is in the yard but he does run it off from food till he has eaten...
Posting photos of your hens would help us identify them. However, if they don't have any white on them, then they are probably Production Reds.
