How to tell male & female chicks apart?

Alexandra · Wed May 28, 2008 3:46 pm

At the beginning of the year I got some Light Sussex hens and a cockeral. I've now got some chicks which are ~11-12 weeks old (didn't do anything as sensible as write down the date they hatched!). Anyway, how old do they have to be before you can tell which ones are male and which ones are female? To me they all look like hens - maybe they are - I don't know. I'm just a little bit impatient and wondered how much longer it is going to take for the boys to start looking like their dad.
Can anyone help?

Thurston Garden · Wed May 28, 2008 8:17 pm

With my Sassos I noticed that the cockerels feathers at the base of their necks, just were they reach on to their backs were more pointed than on the hens. The hens feather tips were very rounded.

Perhaps others will be able to give you some pointers - on the Practical Poultry forum lots of people post pics of their chicks and there's several people on there who seem to be able to sex day olds from photos. Strangely, the experts all agree and generally turn out to be right too!

Lets see some pics it might help sex them

Alexandra · Fri May 30, 2008 5:06 pm

Hi,
Thanks for this - I've had a look at them and can convince myself that there is a difference in the feathers between some of them - but still not sure. Here are some of the pictures:

What do you think?

Thurston Garden · Sat May 31, 2008 9:06 am

The bird in the bottom pic looks like a hen. The feathers are quite rounded at the tips.

I am no expert mind!

red · Post: # 106570Post **red** » Sat May 31, 2008 10:01 am

oo interesting... dunno what I have... I figured we would work it out once they started crowing...

something like cock a doodle *croak* - as they head for the pot...

marshlander · Sat May 31, 2008 11:59 am

Another advantage of the cream legbar is that they're autosexing. This means you can tell the chcks apart by their colour of their down. mostly, the girls hatch brown with clear stripes on their backs and the boys hatch yellow with muted patches of brown.

There are several other breeds that are autosexing- here's a link to a site http://www.autosexing.co.uk/

baldowrie · Sat May 31, 2008 12:36 pm

the combs also get larger on the cocks at a younger age.

Camile · Post: # 106733Post **Camile** » Sun Jun 01, 2008 8:50 am

Hello,

I can sort of sex them 100% when they are young, ie a couple of weeks old ..

the hens are "feathering" much quicker ... and you can see the tails coming out first on hens ...

then later on you can see the wattles and comb getting deep red much quicker on roosters. 8 weeks old or so ..

after that, the saddle feathers develops on roosters, hanging down, whereas the hens doesn't ...

and the color of the combs gets red when the hens starts laying, around 20-26 weeks ....

so by the color of the combs, it looks like 2 roosters on the first pic, and a hen in the 2nd.

Good luck,
Camile