Hi, Ellendra! Unrelated question:
Our local Rural King has two bins of “White Leghorn” chicks. The larger ones are pure white, the smaller ones (maybe a week - 10 days younger, I’d say) have some yellowish coloration. I almost thought they were Amberlinks, but the guy who supposedly runs that show said they were White Leghorns. The bin itself was unlabeled (as most of them were = grrr…). I tried searching online and the pics I found for White Leghorn chicks do look yellowish, so, I guess the guy is right?
Drat. While I’d like to have 2-3 more W. Leghorns, I want 3-4 Amberlinks too, for the brown eggs [for selling] and friendly personalities [for my daughter!].
(The biggest problem we’ve had with Amberlinks are that the roo’s beat them up a bit if we get low on hens* (easiest to catch?) and predators seem to get them 1st, too, possibly for the same reason.)
*That’s the current problem, plus the last hatch from a broody hen was all roos. 3 of the 4 became soup.** Hate to kill #4 as he looks like a hawk: Egger - Amberlink mix. Seems to help keep small raptors and a troublesome stray cat at bay. More hens needed, tho’.
**Other than that (becoming soup), roos seem to hatch / survive better for some reason. Long term, I’d say the survival rate (outside of the case of the broody hen who left the Black Maran eggs I’d bought!) from embryo clearly detectable to “healthy month old” is at least 2:1 roosters. Born to fight? (Rhetorical question - my real q was about the chick’s coloration.) :-)
Rural Kings says they get chicks in Wed. - Fri. — I will give them a call in a bit - maybe will get lucky on what came in...
Now if my wife would just get those opo seeds from her friend!!!
White chickens usually start out as yellow chicks. One of mine is named “Marshmallow” because of that. When she was little she looked like a yellow marshmallow peep. Now she’s all white, so the name still fits.
As they get older they’ll lose the yellow baby feathers and turn white.