What breed are my chickens?

[The Colonel]

First one is a Buff Orpington and the second is a Black Sex Link.

X2, also, depending on where you live, I would get some petroleum jelly for your ladies so both there combs don't look like the BSLs, unless she gets scrubby like mine do and it's dirt. Either way, very nice looking ladies.

 

[Michael OShay]

What is a Black sex link? (how would you get a black sex link chicken)? Thanks I'm a newbie and would love to learn.

Black Sex Links are produced by crossing a red gene rooster (usually a Rhode Island Red or Production Red) with a barred gene hen (usually a Barred Rock). The resulting offspring can be sexed by color at hatching (male chicks are black with a white spot on top of their heads, female chicks are solid black), and they are egg laying machines, outlaying either parent breed. It's one of the interesting quirks of hybridization.