Unknown breed, unknown genders?

[AloneNTheGarden]

Hello! A customer on my husband’s route gave him a dozen eggs as a thank you, and I happened to be putting some RIR eggs in our incubator that same day. So, in our empty slots, we popped 4 of the eggs he was given in there with them just to see if they were fertile. They all hatched! We don’t know what breed they are and are unsure of sexes, also. I thought maybe they were BSL’s at first, but none of them had a white spot on their head when they hatched, so I really can’t tell. Any guesses? They’re 5 weeks old.I do apologize for pic quality, I was on my own and they were not cooperating.

Here is chick 1: black with copper mixed in

Chick 2: same coloration

Chick 3: black with small amounts of white on chest/neck

Chick 4: also black with a small amount of white, but the white is pretty limited to the neck and one white feather in each wing

 

[JacinLarkwell]

They're likely all mixed breed. I don't see any males yet, but they still have a few weeks to develope combs and male traits

 

[AloneNTheGarden]

They're likely all mixed breed. I don't see any males yet, but they still have a few weeks to develope combs and male traits

I was thinking some sort of mixes. I didn’t see anything identifying them as anything in particular, but I’m also definitely not an expert. All my RIR chicks that hatched with them are easy to tell cockerel vs pullet, but these guys have proven more difficult! I’ll wait and see. Thank you for the response!

 

[JedJackson]

Yeah, they are mixes. Some have feathered legs, some don't. For future reference, black sex links females don't have head spots, only the males. I think at least some of your chicks could have come from black sex link mothers, since they have similar coloring, but it's tough to know for sure with mixes.

I agree with @JacinLarkwell that they all look to be pullets so far.

 

[AloneNTheGarden]

Yeah, they are mixes. Some have feathered legs, some don't. For future reference, black sex links females don't have head spots, only the males. I think at least some of your chicks could have come from black sex link mothers, since they have similar coloring, but it's tough to know for sure with mixes.

I agree with @JacinLarkwell that they all look to be pullets so far.

Yeah, I knew it was only males, but when I saw no head spots I figured I couldn’t have gotten so lucky as to not have any males out of the 4. I’m used to hatching more roos than hens lately. So, I assumed they weren’t BSLs after seeing no spots. They did come from XL brown eggs, and that’s about the extent of my knowledge.

That would be great if they are all in fact pullets! Maybe that means my luck is changing. My last batch was 75% Roos. Thanks so much for taking the time to reply.

 

[JedJackson]

Yeah, I knew it was only males, but when I saw no head spots I figured I couldn’t have gotten so lucky as to not have any males out of the 4. I’m used to hatching more roos than hens lately. So, I assumed they weren’t BSLs after seeing no spots. They did come from XL brown eggs, and that’s about the extent of my knowledge.

That would be great if they are all in fact pullets! Maybe that means my luck is changing. My last batch was 75% Roos. Thanks so much for taking the time to reply.

Yeah you lucked out! Four out of four is not something that happens every day.