Unexpected color on chick

[NatJ]

View attachment 3833365View attachment 3833366
View attachment 3833367View attachment 3833368

Thank you so much for your continued input, genuinely! I am having a lot of fun and learning quite a bit along the way.

And I'm having fun seeing how they grow, although of course I have a few responses like "the chick did WHAT? I thought we had that figured out correctly!"

The ayam cross boy may have yellow feet under a dark cover due to his melanism, and the possibly khaki boy has pink feet under the gray overlay on his, so I do not think we'll be able to reliably sex chicks that way given a few of the pullets have yellow legs, one has green legs, and some have blue legs (and same for the boys).

I agree, if you have all possible leg colors in males and in females, sexing by leg color is not going to work.

I don't think we'll have much luck with early to tell sex characteristics in general; one of the older chicks we assumed was a boy due to slow feathering and feathered feet (pointing to brahma) has not gotten a red comb or wattles at this point and chicks three weeks younger than him(?) have, so that one's gender is up in the air.

Brahmas do have a reputation for being slow to mature, so I agree about that one still being up in the air: could be female, could be a male that is maturing much more slowly than some of the other chicks.

Anyway here are some group pictures I got! Per the last image, I have some questions. She is the other sibling to the one barred boy we have. I'd assumed she was a girl and I still am on the fence because her comb is small and quite pale whereas her brother's is reddening up and huge at this point.
But is that whiteish barring I'm seeing coming in on her wings there? It doesn't look like the other one's barring if it is, and it isn't on all the feathers, only a few recent ones.

Hmm, I don't know what to think on that one. I think I do see lighter areas running across the feathers.

Maybe that one will become more clear in time? (At least as regard sex, which may then tell us for sure if the chick inherited the barring gene or not.)

 

[Worm94]

And I'm having fun seeing how they grow, although of course I have a few responses like "the chick did WHAT? I thought we had that figured out correctly!"

Yeah there've been a couple that have me scratching my head too for sure! Of the three who displayed chipmunk or close to chipmunk patterns that were nearly identical as fluffy chicks, one is primarily black with orange/buff coloring coming in(regular blue feet), one is blue/buff patterning(pastel blueish feet), and one is mostly orange with a little black (bright green feet).

That all-red fluff chick? Black and buff. The sweater vest one? Lots of black feathers on a white background, like a more intense columbian. Also the only one with pink feet-- just, totally pink feet.

Then there's the barred chick, and the sister(hopefully) that I was asking about ; as far as I remember at least the sister started out with yellowy white fluff with a dark brown/black stripe along her back. Now she's got a buff neck and red and blue feathers on the rest of her body!

Maybe that one will become more clear in time? (At least as regard sex, which may then tell us for sure if the chick inherited the barring gene or not.)

If it isn't barring, then she's a girl but-- but I don't know. She's pretty skittish and in my limited experience with my birds, the more skittish they are the more likely they are to be pullets (with some exceptions, like most of the brahma mixes). But she isn't a brahma, so that's out. If she somehow has barring and is still a hen, I don't even know what I'd do. If she's a boy that comb is awfully pale at her age.

We have black, blue, and white chicks too; of the white ones, the one with the least black specks of feathers altogether, almost none, is the boy. I think he came from the barred hens because of his size but if he's barred I'm definitely not seeing it for a good long while since he's so white.

There's a good few with melanistic combs too, ranging from small completely black birds (from a mystery tiny black hen with blue legs and golden neck pattern and our ayam cross) to the bigger white ones with paint splashes of black (though not all of them have that melanism).
We've also got one with that same buff and blue coloring but it's almost pastel on her and I have no idea how she'll look as an adult. I need to get a picture, really I need a bunch more here soon to keep up with them.