Mystery gray and yellow chick - Help ID?

[fuzzymonkeez101]

I am not 100% certain this chick is an Easter Egger.
But I am sure that Easter Egger is the most likely answer.
If it's a wrong chick in the order, do you have any other suggestion for what it may be? Any kind of chick sold by a major hatchery that DOES look like that?

I am basing "Easter Egger" mostly on two pieces of evidence.
One is this:

The chick cannot possibly be Production Red, or Golden Comet, or Russian Orloff.
So if the list is correct, the chick must be an Easter Egger.

My second piece of evidence: I do not know of any other kind of chicken that is likely. I have not seen any pure breed of chicken that looks like that chick. Nor is that a common appearance for any of the other mixed types that are commonly available from hatcheries. And no-one else has suggested any other breed or type of chick that is commonly available from hatcheries either.

Therefore I think the chick is MOST LIKELY an Easter Egger. I am not 100% certain. But I think all other possibilities are less likely.

If the chick grows up to lay blue or green eggs, we will have the answer.
If the chick grows up to be a male, or to be a female that lays other colors of eggs, by then it will have an adult appearance to help us make better guesses.


But it does mean, when a chick is sold as an Easter Egger, you cannot say "I know from the appearance that chick is no Easter Egger." As long as Easter Egger means any chicken that has the blue egg gene, there will never be a standard appearance.

Unless a chicken belongs to a recognizable breed, you cannot tell by looking at the chicken what color eggs it will lay (blue, green, white, brown). That also means you cannot tell what color eggs it won't lay.

I breed my own chickens and just try to share knowledge, but people who read something online once and don't have any actual experience or understanding of basic genetics, think they know more than someone who actually does this for a living.

 

[NatJ]

That is not what I said. You are being extremely argumentative when I was just trying to help the person who posted.

Funny, I saw you as being the argumentative one. Maybe it was both of us.

My main point:
--the sign said Easter Egger.
--the chick has an appearance that an Easter Egger can have.

So I see no reason to disbelieve the sign at this time.

I breed my own chickens and just try to share knowledge, but people who read something online once and don't have any actual experience or understanding of basic genetics, think they know more than someone who actually does this for a living.

Let's not waste time arguing about who knows more. It's easy enough to search the forum for posts by any particular member, read what they've said, and decide for yourself whether they know what they're talking about.

 

[ScalesandTailsRanch]

OP here. Additional information. The employees at the local feed store where the chicks were purchased didn't know much about chickens. They brought in four boxes of chicks, and put them all into one pen in the store. We happened to see the box with Easter Eggers before it was emptied, and all those chicks had stripes. We didn't see which box the gray chick came out of. We are thinking more and more that the store was wrong about which chicks were coming in. We didn't see any that looked like golden comets that day, which we had been hoping to get.

 

[21hens-incharge]

OP here. Additional information. The employees at the local feed store where the chicks were purchased didn't know much about chickens. They brought in four boxes of chicks, and put them all into one pen in the store. We happened to see the box with Easter Eggers before it was emptied, and all those chicks had stripes. We didn't see which box the gray chick came out of. We are thinking more and more that the store was wrong about which chicks were coming in. We didn't see any that looked like golden comets that day, which we had been hoping to get.

Whatever that cutie grows up to be I am sure it will be beautiful.

I have a sapphire gem that was that light as a chick. She is pale gray (called blue in chickens lol). Maybe that is what you ended up with.

 

[NatJ]

OP here. Additional information. The employees at the local feed store where the chicks were purchased didn't know much about chickens. They brought in four boxes of chicks, and put them all into one pen in the store. We happened to see the box with Easter Eggers before it was emptied, and all those chicks had stripes. We didn't see which box the gray chick came out of. We are thinking more and more that the store was wrong about which chicks were coming in. We didn't see any that looked like golden comets that day, which we had been hoping to get.

In that case, it could be any kind of chick that is produced by that hatchery.

Do you know the name of the hatchery? If they have a website with chicks listed, it may be possible to find a match by looking through the options. Otherwise, I think it's going to be random guessing until it grows up, and maybe even then.

Quoting myself:

I see no reason to disbelieve the sign at this time.

Given the new information, now I DO see reason to distrust the sign.

Some hatcheries have Easter Eggers that look pretty much alike, others have flocks with a wide range of colors and patterns. If you saw that all the Easter Eggers were consistently colored in this batch from this hatchery, that makes it more likely that your chick was something different.

There's still a chance it could be an Easter Egger, but I now think the chance is fairly low, instead of being the most likely thing.

 

[rural mouse]

OP here. Additional information. The employees at the local feed store where the chicks were purchased didn't know much about chickens. They brought in four boxes of chicks, and put them all into one pen in the store. We happened to see the box with Easter Eggers before it was emptied, and all those chicks had stripes. We didn't see which box the gray chick came out of. We are thinking more and more that the store was wrong about which chicks were coming in. We didn't see any that looked like golden comets that day, which we had been hoping to get.

The yellow and grey down coloring I've seen in Colombian marked birds (Colombian Wyandotte, Light Brahma, Light Sussex). Doesn't mean that's what the chick is, but, possibilities. Light Brahmas have pea combs and feathered feet, so not this chick. Wyandottes have rose combs MOST of the time, but straight combs pop up occasionally and the Sussex have straight combs. Colombian coloring can show up in other breeds and in mixes (including EEs). You have a bit of a mystery at the moment. As the chick grows, the mystery may be solved....or remain a mystery. Post updates as it grows, please. I'm curious to see how it does.