What small chicken breeds have black faces?

[Amer]

Gypsy face, which is what the hen pictured exhibits, can occur in any breed but usually never shows up with barring. Gypsy face occurs when dermal melanin and other melanizers interact, but it is normally selected against.
Barring+dermal melanin is very rare. However, a hen gets the dermal melanin gene from her father, along with the absence of a barring gene. That, with the extended black gene of the barred Rocks may give you gypsy face, and it will definitely give you dark legs.
This is my Starling, a hen with a wheaten Ameraucana father and a Dominique mother.

So given the information that she is black with black legs and a dark face only narrows the father down to not splash and not dominant white with dark legs.

 

[Anime2lover]

You can try looking at hatchery websites--they usually have photos of the various chicken breeds they sell. Here are three that I've noticed have nice photos:
https://www.mcmurrayhatchery.com/index.html
https://www.cacklehatchery.com/
https://hoovershatchery.com/

Thank you.

 

[Anime2lover]

Gypsy face, which is what the hen pictured exhibits, can occur in any breed but usually never shows up with barring. Gypsy face occurs when dermal melanin and other melanizers interact, but it is normally selected against.
Barring+dermal melanin is very rare. However, a hen gets the dermal melanin gene from her father, along with the absence of a barring gene. That, with the extended black gene of the barred Rocks may give you gypsy face, and it will definitely give you dark legs.
This is my Starling, a hen with a wheaten Ameraucana father and a Dominique mother.View attachment 2369366
So given the information that she is black with black legs and a dark face only narrows the father down to not splash and not dominant white with dark legs.

How likely is that to happen with two chicks in a clutch of six? She was part of a clutch of siz eggs we bought. 4 hatched (two are typical barreds) one of the four isyears her, and the last was one that looked similiar to her as a chick (she died due to internal complications sadly. Not only was she the same color as blackhead (the chick pictured above) but she was also abnormally small to.

 

[Amer]

How likely is that to happen with two chicks in a clutch of six? She was part of a clutch of siz eggs we bought. 4 hatched (two are typical barreds) one of the four isyears her, and the last was one that looked similiar to her as a chick (she died due to internal complications sadly. Not only was she the same color as blackhead (the chick pictured above) but she was also abnormally small to.

I don’t know, Starling was an accidental hatch. I imagine it’s pretty common.

 

[Ruthster55]

Gypsy face, which is what the hen pictured exhibits, can occur in any breed but usually never shows up with barring. Gypsy face occurs when dermal melanin and other melanizers interact, but it is normally selected against.
Barring+dermal melanin is very rare. However, a hen gets the dermal melanin gene from her father, along with the absence of a barring gene. That, with the extended black gene of the barred Rocks may give you gypsy face, and it will definitely give you dark legs.
This is my Starling, a hen with a wheaten Ameraucana father and a Dominique mother.View attachment 2369366
So given the information that she is black with black legs and a dark face only narrows the father down to not splash and not dominant white with dark legs.

Sorry to hear about the OP’s hen passing.

In the egg-laying flock, which is barnyard mixes that lay blue, green, and light brown eggs, I actually want to select FOR the melanin in the comb, beak, and legs. I just think it’s really cute.

The hen on the right lays a green egg nearly every day. I’m thrilled that she is both a good producer and is “cute,” at least to my eyes.

(No, we haven’t used those Christmas lights in years. They were removed in a coop renovation last week that featured adding natural branches).
.

 

[Anime2lover]

Sorry to hear about the OP’s hen passing.

In the egg-laying flock, which is barnyard mixes that lay blue, green, and light brown eggs, I actually want to select FOR the melanin in the comb, beak, and legs. I just think it’s really cute.

The hen on the right lays a green egg nearly every day. I’m thrilled that she is both a good producer and is “cute,” at least to my eyes.

(No, we haven’t used those Christmas lights in years. They were removed in a coop renovation last week that featured adding natural branches).
.
View attachment 2369914

That beak is similiar more to the one that died. Tiny tot was such an adorable tiny chick she was my favorite of the bunch. She made it to the point of having more of her hard feathers before she couldn't continue on. (I had to hand feed her as a baby and she was doing great with that. I thought she was ready to be on normal feed since she seemed to be a healthy weight and was acting like a healthy chick. She stayed like that for two whole weeks without being hand fed before she took a steep nose dive. Thankfully we have our second youngest still. Little black head had become my favorite of our three musketeers (all our barred chicks). She's small enough that I actually want to see what would come out of her and our bantam peepers (peepers actually has his own survival story to.)

 

[Ruthster55]

That beak is similiar more to the one that died. Tiny tot was such an adorable tiny chick she was my favorite of the bunch. She made it to the point of having more of her hard feathers before she couldn't continue on. (I had to hand feed her as a baby and she was doing great with that. I thought she was ready to be on normal feed since she seemed to be a healthy weight and was acting like a healthy chick. She stayed like that for two whole weeks without being hand fed before she took a steep nose dive. Thankfully we have our second youngest still. Little black head had become my favorite of our three musketeers (all our barred chicks). She's small enough that I actually want to see what would come out of her and our bantam peepers (peepers actually has his own survival story to.)

I’m so sorry that she didn’t make it!

I don’t do any assisted hatching. If the hen doesn’t hatch an egg, she doesn’t hatch it....

I let broody hens raise chicks (moved to a cage where they’re safe from predators). I just give chick starter and water (with marbles to prevent chicks from drowning) to the hen and babies.

Mama and babies get cardboard on the bottom of the cage and scattered crumbles to eat and stay warm as long as needed.

It’s really easy this way. (I am not in a heavy winter climate).

I have had occasional chick losses where a hen stepped on a chick, but that is not usual.

Yes, doing it this way selects against eggs and chickies with low vigor. I also think it’s the way chicks were raised in the old days.

I have an incubator, but have problems with the humidity especially in dry season. I would rather that hens do the hatching!

 

[Anime2lover]

I’m so sorry that she didn’t make it!

I don’t do any assisted hatching. If the hen doesn’t hatch an egg, she doesn’t hatch it....

I let broody hens raise chicks (moved to a cage where they’re safe from predators). I just give chick starter and water (with marbles to prevent chicks from drowning) to the hen and babies.

Mama and babies get cardboard on the bottom of the cage and scattered crumbles to eat and stay warm as long as needed.

It’s really easy this way. (I am not in a heavy winter climate).

I have had occasional chick losses where a hen stepped on a chick, but that is not usual.

Yes, doing it this way selects against eggs and chickies with low vigor. I also think it’s the way chicks were raised in the old days.

I have an incubator, but have problems with the humidity especially in dry season. I would rather that hens do the hatching!

We have done both. Get better results from the bator though. When doing it with a hen theres a risk of choosing the wrong hen to allow to be, a mother. She could be a bad mother.

 

[Ruthster55]

We have done both. Get better results from the bator though. When doing it with a hen theres a risk of choosing the wrong hen to allow to be, a mother. She could be a bad mother.

If a hen is a REALLY bad mother, she can go in the soup....thankfully haven’t had any that bad this year.

A neighbor had a hen that was really bad to her chicks, so I’m aware of the issue. Hope she tasted good.....

 

[Anime2lover]

If a hen is a REALLY bad mother, she can go in the soup....thankfully haven’t had any that bad this year.

A neighbor had a hen that was really bad to her chicks, so I’m aware of the issue. Hope she tasted good.....

I had one this year that wasn't athe great mom. She didn't try and kill them but didn't really know how to treat them. She often stepped and kicked them when we let them out of the brooder. So we took them away and marked her as not a good mom. All our good moms have yellow bands. Bad mom has none but we know exactly who she iswas because she's the only black hen with a beard.