telling chicks apart

[vsmenagerie]

I received my order of 60 chicks. Supposed to be 50 red rangers and 10 Cx. I have a feeling my order was mixed up and curious how soon I can tell them apart.

 

[mstricer]

You should be able to. I would think the red rangers to be more of a redish color. But I could be wrong. If nothing else if will take about a week, they will start to feather out and then you can tell.

 

[vsmenagerie]

I was totally expecting more then 10 obviously red chicks for sure. So far I'm seeing a lot of white wing feathers. The hatchery said sometimes the rangers come out yellow and to keep them posted. Thanks!

 

[Life is Good!]

Nope, the red feathers don't come in until after about 7-10 days. Take a look at some of the photos on this thread here:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/648295/freedom-rangers-in-illinois

I just finished our first batch of FR and I had forgotten how tiny and yellow they were! Some of ours turned more 'strawberry blonde' and others were more 'reddish'.

 

[vsmenagerie]

So white wing feathers don't count? I plan on watching them and obviously we are keeping them. I'm really hoping they are just lighter. Just seems like a lot of white lol thanks A picture from today.

 

[Life is Good!]

Looking at your picture above I can see a few FR's off the bat.....I can count 5. Darn, wish I had a way to mark the ones I see! They are the more 'strawberry blonde' chicks in the photos above, or have more red in their wings...The other chicks do not seem to be FR's to me, but not seeing them firsthand, it's a bit hard to say.

Here's a picture from our 25 FR from Freedom Ranger Hatchery (formerly known as JM Hatchery)....in this picture they were about a week old. Their wing feathers came in first, somewhere around day 4 or 5, a few even came with their early wing feathers protruding. Most of the FR had 'barred' baby wing feathers, as you can see below. (A few of the very light yellow chicks only had white fluff for a long while, but even that was a bit striped with the faintest hints of red)



Here's what they grew up to look like - little if any barred feathers, just reds and strawberry blondes:

 

[vsmenagerie]

I see a couple that look like they have reddish tinted wings but the majority is snow white. We should have had 50 red rangers and only 10 Cornish. I'm hoping by weds I will know who's who.

Eta: there are 10 obvious red ones lol

 

[Life is Good!]

Whoops. Sounds like your order was flipped - call the hatchery to find out what to do....(cost difference, etc?)

 

[vsmenagerie]

She said to let them know once they feather out more and they will refund the price difference. Which is great but my friends that split the order only wanted the red rangers lol