What is a sapphire gem?

[PachecoPeeps]

Note..the pic of them in the box...obviously the little chick up front is one of the roos...the little black head to his left is the 1st pullet I posted...my son's favorite. She looked like a penguin...you can see how dark she is. The one directly above him is the one we call one-spot for now because she has one spot on the left side of her beak and we'd kind of like to wait to name them. She's the second to last one I posted. And the chic in the far upper right corner is the last one I posted so that you can get an idea of what they looked like on arrival compared to now As I've said before, based on what I received, the 2 silvery grey chicks with no contrast between heads and body and no dark markings on legs are roos. The rest, all varied from medium to dark grey with varying degrees of contrast between head and body and varying and inconsistent light markings around eyes, and dark markings on beak and legs....all pullets. When they were just starting to feather out, it appeared both males and females had a stiped pattern on the wings. I'm new to chickens so I don't know if that's an indication of barring down the road but my girls and boys both had it. So I don't think that's the indication for barring. I believe I read somewhere that barred birds have a white spot on their head when little? But my roos did not. So I'm at a loss. If I were to walk into a TSC tomorrow to pick out SG chicks on my own, if I was looking for pullets, I'd stay away from any light grey birds with no contrast between head and body, and that had light beaks and legs....

Your chicks are so cute. thank you for posting the pictures.

 

[renk777]

Your chicks are so cute. thank you for posting the pictures.

No problem! I know how frustrating it is when you go online for info and pics and you get....nothing. LOL The sad reality is that for quite a few people looking for more into on this hybrid, our thread will probably be the most info they get! hahaha

 

[renk777]

View attachment 1289149 We received 14 sapphires on March 1st and we noticed the difference in colors too. We also have a couple who are very light colored and have no dark on their head. As far as I can tell none have barring yet on their wings. I will be pretty upset if we end up with a bunch of boys on a sex linked chickens.

In the pictures the 3 with the dots are cuckoo marans.

I just looked at your pic again with your birdlets on the day of their arrival. Based on what you wrote, I'm pretty sure you have the same situation as I do...at least one (if not both) of the packing peanuts are roos. The lightest one in the corner I'm almost certain is a roo...and the one facing him, might be. Though the dark on both beaks still throws me. It's hard to tell in photos as they look darker than they do in life.

 

[PouleNoire]

Thanks so much renk777! Those pictures are awesome and help a lot!

View attachment 1294499 This is another girl....she was lighter grey when she arrived with darker grey on head and some light marking around eyes. Most of the yellow around eyes is gone now but she's one of our medium grey girls. I only got one good photo. She's a mover! Haha

View attachment 1294508 This girl was another one of our lighter girls but still had slightly darker coloration on head than roos. She had a lot of yellow markings around eyes and the lightest beak of the girls...though it still had some dark spots unlike the roos that have completely light beaksView attachment 1294507

These two girls give me hope for my lightest one, Jewel, she has that little black line on one of her eyes. My darker one isn't quite as dark as your son's favorite one but she's definitely darker than the two roos and Jewel.

 

[renk777]

Thanks so much renk777! Those pictures are awesome and help a lot!

These two girls give me hope for my lightest one, Jewel, she has that little black line on one of her eyes. My darker one isn't quite as dark as your son's favorite one but she's definitely darker than the two roos and Jewel.

Yay! I do hope you've got 2 little girls It sounds as though you do! Our plan was to keep 5 and sell 7. But then we lost one girl and determined we had 2 roos. And we recently adopted out a questionable background layer with her brother to a sanctuary because we didn't want to send him alone. His sister had gone broody and so it seemed like a sign that we should keep them together in their incestuous little relationship haha So now we need 6 out of the 9 girls left. And at that point, we might as well just keep all 9. Chicken math in effect. Let's see if I can convince the hubby haha

 

[PouleNoire]

I hope so too! Yes, chicken math is very real for me too!

 

[Mysimplewyominglife]

does anyone have a good picture of what a laying hen looks like from this breed? I'm asking because this sapphire gem base on the picture from hoovers hatchery looks like what we call a bluebell here in the UK and they are basically dirt cheap (by UK standards).

 

[renk777]

does anyone have a good picture of what a laying hen looks like from this breed? I'm asking because this sapphire gem base on the picture from hoovers hatchery looks like what we call a bluebell here in the UK and they are basically dirt cheap (by UK standards).

Not yet...we're all waiting on the edge of our seats for such photos...but you're right...the way they're depicted in that one awful, photoshopped image that's circulating, they look just like Bluebells. Wouldn't surprise me at all if they are and they just added that bit about Czech origin to appeal to those fancying something new haha I haven't been able to find anything on czech sites regarding them. Very suspicious I'll continue to post pics of my girls as they grow for those who would like to see pics

 

[Mysimplewyominglife]

This is the best picture I can find of my Bluebell girl Frigg but she looks spot on to the sapphire gem photo. also if they are the same breed they might lay more then the 260 a year I know mine has laid almost every day since I got her last May.

 

[PouleNoire]

Hmm, suspicious...I too am going to try to post pictures of mine because I am curious, and curious about their genders too.