Can anyone identify this chick?

[ladysidhe]

I bought this female chick at a Tractor Supply. She was the last chick in a brooder that said Orpington, but the employee told me that she was a Mystic Onyx. As a young chick, she was completely black from beak to toes, but within the last week or so, her color has begun changing, so I'm not sure. The pictures are of her the day I got her, and at about 4 weeks old.

Thanks in advance

 

[Lacy Duckwing]

She looks like my mislabeled chick that I'm calling a Black Star. I think Mystic Onyx hens are black and both genders have fibro skin, and if you look closely, you chick has some white on her toes in the second picture and it looks like her comb will redden when she matures in the first picture. Please keep us updated, but I'm going to guess Black Star as a quick guess. (Others might have better guesses.)

On a side note, check out this list and see if it matches any of the chicks: Hoover's Hatchery (TSC): Identify Your Chick

 

[JedJackson]

Mystic Onyx is possible, but to me she looks just like a black sex link.

 

[ladysidhe]

She looks like my mislabeled chick that I'm calling a Black Star. I think Mystic Onyx hens are black and both genders have fibro skin, and if you look closely, you chick has some white on her toes in the second picture and it looks like her comb will redden when she matures in the first picture. Please keep us updated, but I'm going to guess Black Star as a quick guess. (Others might have better guesses.)

On a side note, check out this list and see if it matches any of the chicks: Hoover's Hatchery (TSC): Identify Your Chick

Hoover's Hatchery ID was one of the first places I tried. Then I tried another site where you could upload a pic, but the breed it suggested didn't look anything like her.

I was thinking I'd just check out the color of her comb when it starts to develop. I'm guessing if it's not black, I can rule out Mystic Onyx. I also saw pics of a Black Copper Marans and a Mystic Marans that both had similar colors...

I'll check out the Black Star, and also keep taking pictures of her and upload them to show any more color changes. Thanks!

 

[Lacy Duckwing]

Hoover's Hatchery ID was one of the first places I tried. Then I tried another site where you could upload a pic, but the breed it suggested didn't look anything like her.

I was thinking I'd just check out the color of her comb when it starts to develop. I'm guessing if it's not black, I can rule out Mystic Onyx. I also saw pics of a Black Copper Marans and a Mystic Marans that both had similar colors...

I'll check out the Black Star, and also keep taking pictures of her and upload them to show any more color changes. Thanks!

I had thought of the Marans, but those have feathered shanks and your chick doesn't. They're very similar though.

 

[ladysidhe]

I had thought of the Marans, but those have feathered shanks and your chick doesn't. They're very similar though.

I noticed that. I wasn't sure, though, because some of the photos shown in the search had feathered feet, and some didn't. I've only ever had ISA Browns and Golden Comets (and just recently, a Barred Rock), so anything else is new to me. Plus, a lot of these breeds look alike to me, so...

I asked a friend of mine who has a lot of different breeds in her flock, but she's not sure about this one, either.

So, am I to understand that the colored sex-linked breeds (like the reds that I'm used to) are all basically the same "breed", just different names and slightly different feather patterns? Is that how it works? When I looked up the Cinnamon Queens to see how different they were from the ISA Browns, it was implied that they were pretty much the same bird.

 

[Lacy Duckwing]

I noticed that. I wasn't sure, though, because some of the photos shown in the search had feathered feet, and some didn't. I've only ever had ISA Browns and Golden Comets (and just recently, a Barred Rock), so anything else is new to me. Plus, a lot of these breeds look alike to me, so...

I asked a friend of mine who has a lot of different breeds in her flock, but she's not sure about this one, either.

So, am I to understand that the colored sex-linked breeds (like the reds that I'm used to) are all basically the same "breed", just different names and slightly different feather patterns? Is that how it works? When I looked up the Cinnamon Queens to see how different they were from the ISA Browns, it was implied that they were pretty much the same bird.

These breeds are all in the Sex Link family which is categorized into Red Sex Link (RSL), which is the most common, Black Sex Link (BSL), sometimes called Black Stars, and a few others like the Amber Star. These are all hybrids and done by specific breeding and not birds that breed true like the Lemon Cuckoo Orpingtons or the Silver Duckwing Old English Games, who can also be determined their genders by their colors or markings at hatch.

With these Sex Link hybrids, usually it's one color and breed of chicken bred to a different color and/or breed of chicken. Take an Isa Brown, you breed a Rhode Island Red rooster to a White Plymouth Rock hen and you'll get white cockerels and red pullets. For a Golden Comet, you'll switch that RIR with a New Hampshire Red. On most RSL, it's usually a red rooster over a white hen and they'll change the name according to whatever breeds they used on either side. On BSL, it's Barred Rock hen to a Rhode Island Red rooster, and you'll get black pullets and barred cockerels.

With the BSL, their markings vary just like the RSL, but because they're mostly black with red in the hackles unlike the RSL's red with white in the saddle (and back end), they appear like they have a wider variety even though they don't. Some will appear almost all black with very little red in the hackles whereas others will appear mostly red with some black on their back end. If you know your markings, sometimes you can selectively pick your chicks so you know you're getting a lot of red or a lot of black, but often people aren't looking for specifics, so you'll often see this wide variety. (The brown on the head will give more red in your chick's hackles whereas if you got one without that brown and possibly some grey on the chest, you'd be getting one who had less to barely any red.)

 

[Lacy Duckwing]

Here are some of my BSLs I had a few years ago. The chick I have right now isn't full grown yet, so I'm still waiting on how she turns out. You can see the wide difference just in these three, but I also selectively picked these because I wanted the variety. The one on the bottom had the brown on the head, which I selectively picked because I wanted those markings.