Mystery Chickens

Back in May we received 10 day-or-two-old chicks from the local feed store. They were all supposed to be hens, but the supplier makes no guarantees because chicks (and the eggs they come from) are notoriously hard to sex.

Anyway, we had ordered 5 Barred Rock hens and 5 Buff Orpington hens.

A couple of months have passed, and even though we are pretty sure we have 5 Barred Rock hens, we are still living with some mystery.

We seem to have...

• One Buff Orp with a pale comb and wattle. I will say this is a hen. See exhibit A.
  
• One Buff Orp with a red comb and wattle. I'm actually thinking this is a hen, too. Exhibit B.
  
• THREE that seem to be some other breed altogether--even though our first thought was they were just male Buff Orps. But these things have to be some other chicken. Rhode Island Red? New Hampshire Red? SOMETHING red, anyway. With greenish-black tail feathers. Exhibit C.
  

At least ONE of the reds is a cockerel. How do I know? The morning cock-a-doodle-doo is rather a give away. But the strutting around on high alert all the time? I'm thinking male.

But the next question is: are ALL of the red ones males? Or just one or two?

I think only one of them crows in the morning, and there is one that seems more territorial than the other two, but who knows? They look an awful lot alike.

Stakes are high, because we're not even sure we want ONE male around our layers (Norah is creeped out by the idea of eating fertilized eggs). Any extra males will be going for a brief stay at our friend Shawnee's house before an extended visit to Freezer Camp.


Exhibit A: Henny Buff Orpington.


Exhibit B: Another Buff Orpington hen?


Exhibit C: Mystery Bird or Bird-Dude.