Okay, so I've mentioned that I replaced my whole flock with new chicks from the local feed store. Aside from my banties and cresteds (which were straight run), I bought only sex-linked pullets. Well. So I thought. Now I'm worried. I've got four black sex-links which I was inclined to think were Black Stars, and they may well be, but I think they're gentlemen rather than ladies. From what I can tell, only the two with black heads will be female, and the four with white spots on their heads will be male. That's FOUR roosters! Can anyone reassure me that they may still in fact be females? I can post pictures if that will help. Thanks!
Sex-Link Scare
Nope... sounds like you have four roos....see below from Feathersite:
"Black Sex-Links are produced using a Barred Rock as the mother. Both sexes hatch out black, but the males have a white dot on their heads. Pullets feather out black with some red in neck feathers. Males feather out with the Barred Rock pattern along with a few red feathers. Black Sex-Links are often referred to as Rock Reds."
Now, if they were Barred Rocks both sexes would have head spots, but the girls' would be smaller and tighter, the boys bigger and more diffuse. And the girls would have much darker legs and feet.
For more on sex-linked:
http://www.feathersite.com/Poultry/CGP/Sex-links/BRKSexLink.html
This message was edited Feb 28, 2010 12:57 AM
Well, shoot. I'm going to go back to the feed store and see if they'll do anything about it. If yes, or if no, I'm going to pick up some more hens. And I'll make sure they're all black this time! Since my other chicks are about a week and a half old, I'm thinking about putting the smaller ones in with my banties until they fill out a little so they don't get picked on (unless of course they start messing with my banties!). Does that make sense, or should they be okay in gen pop?
Eileen
It makes sense, but the chicks in the feed store are probably older now too...unless they just received a new shipment.
Good luck!
That's why they are sold so fast at the feed store.. a new batch will be nothing but roos in a very short time... Buyer beware! Roos are in abundance.. I doubt the feed store would do anything, but good luck!
Do I dare go to just "look"??? We could use some layers.. LOL
Don't you dare, ZZ! I am rolling in chicks....LOL.
Well, they feed store said that if they were banded, then they were girls, but the replaced the four of them anyway. Yay Atwoods! If those original four turn out to be girls, I'll just go back in and pay them for them. So, of course, I replaced those four with a total of six because now I am a chicken addict. :)
Great news Mevnmart! I'd be a loyal customer for good... Great customer service! Figures, your not in CA. LOL
There are no chicks at the feed store yet.. LOL You are safe for now Catsy!
Side question: A friend of ours said that you can sex a young chick by putting your fingers on either side of it's head (like under the skull at the neck) and dangle them. She said if they fight with their feet, they're boys, and if they just hang there, they're girls. Has anyone ever heard of such a thing?
We used a similar method, by laying the chick on your hand, (on it's back) and if it raises one leg it's a pullet, both or none, a roo. Not reliable.
I'd be scared to do something like that to them for fear of dislocating the neck... but that's just me.
Same idea with throwing a hat over the chicks or dangling them by their legs...the boys are just more reactive. Probably if you gave them a battery of reaction tests over several days you could make accurate predictions...but none of them seems totally reliable on its own.
Still, if I were faced with a water trough full of identical feed store chicks, I would try them all.
I did that with the chicks at Atwoods, a lady there showed me. I tried once... i was afraid of tearing their little heads off.. so i never did it again. She picked them out for me & I got all hens. I bought 16 chicks from them that year, different breeds & she got it correct for hens every time. BUT that whole bin could have been girls & they didn't know.
I think you develop a feel for it over time....but has anyone noticed that at a week or so, some of the chicks combs start to go pink and you think "Ah! Roo. I've got your number!" only to have the comb stop developing and go paler at a month or so.
I have five definite pullets that have done that now...four bantam crosses and one a New Hampshire with a lot of rooish traits in terms of boldness and head shape, but with a tiny little comb.
It doesn't seem to happen with Serama, if that is any help. You can pretty much tell a Serama roo by its comb by three weeks....and make a good guess earlier.
This lady use to work at a hatchery in the part that determined which sex they were. idk if they used that technique or if she figured it out but she was pretty good at it. My uncle use to do that too & all he did was tip them upside down & look at their little bottoms. I heard he was rarely wrong. I looked on the chicks last spring.. {shrugs} they all looked the same to me so no clue what he was looking for.
I'll have to post really good pics of these chicks if they hatch thats in the incubator now so you guys can figure out what they are.
That is my favorite thing is guessing the gender.. I love it!
Catscan you mentioned rooster head shape - how does the shape differ from the hens'?
Hi porkpal...it is a little difficult to explain and it helps if you have at least two birds of the same breed and age but different sexes, but roo chicks (or cockerels, if we are going to be technical), tend to have more angular heads and hold their heads up higher, pullets heads tend to be rounder and the eyes appear a little larger and softer.
Damerow discusses it, but I think you have to look at a lot of chicks to feel comfortable. I can usually guess if a chick is definitely a pullet with a far degree of accuracy...but there are more rooish pullets so it is hard to say if the one that structurally looks rather rooish is actually one or a just a less pullety pullet.
This is a good site for ideas on how to sex heavy breed chicks at 5 weeks (especially chart at bottom):
http://www.users.on.net/~greggles/sexing.html
And this is a really comprehensive discussion of various ways to sex chicks...most agree that vent sexing, auto-sexing or sex-linked aside, it is hard to do before 5 weeks.
I am particularly interested in the one that describes using the reflectiveness of the feathers as an indicator. Also at the bottom they describe the flying hat trick!
http://www.thepoultrysite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=8249
Here's a pic that shows a couple of them...
So, what are the breeds? They look like Barred Rocks in the foreground.
Oh my goodness! That's what they are!!! They were labeled black sex-linked so I assumed that's what they were. But looking at barred rock pictures on the net, they look exactly like those! So they may be girls after all?
Yes!
Barred Rocks are fairly easy to sex...the boys have bigger, more diffused head spots and are generally a bit lighter coloured (silvery) and bigger framed with mostly yellowish legs.
The girls are a bit smaller and darker with "tighter", smaller head spots and darker pigment down their legs and toes.
That would explain why they had ones with head spots tagged as pullets....not that it is 100%, but it is pretty accurate.
This message was edited Mar 1, 2010 1:33 AM
"Black Sex-Links are produced using a Barred Rock as the mother. Both sexes hatch out black, but the males have a white dot on their heads. Pullets feather out black with some red in neck feathers.
Males feather out with the Barred Rock pattern along with a few red feathers. Black Sex-Links are often referred to as Rock Reds."
But mevnmart has barred chicks, not black ones.
(See the black sex link chicks at the bottom of this Feathersite page:
http://www.feathersite.com/Poultry/CGP/Sex-links/BRKSexLink.html)
She has typical Barred Rocks...they must have been mislabeled at the feed store.
I'm lost... LOL Sorry!
You're in Lodi. There's no place like home...There's no place like home....
Well, if the banded (barred rock) ones end up being girls, I'll have to go down to the store and pay for them. I feel like a bit of a noob! (Because I am!). Thanks for the help. Shortly here, I'm going to post all of them so maybe you guys can help identify. Thanks everyone (as always!).
Eileen