OK, it was suggested that I post some pix and stats on my chicks so that we can all have a good guess at who the roos will be. Tonight I took pics of wings, head spots and legs. I also weighed everybody.
Chick 1 weighs 3.7 oz and has a small head spot and pale legs with brown fronts.
Chick 2 weighs 3.7 oz and has a medium, diffuse head spot, pale legs, brown fronts.
Chick 3 weighs 4.9 oz and has a large triangular head spot, pale legs, brown fronts.
Chick 4 weighs 4.1 oz and has no head spot and pale toes with darker legs.
Chick 5 weighs 3.9 oz and has no head spot and pale toes with darker legs.
Chick 6 weighs 3.5 oz and has a large diffuse head spot and pale legs with brown fronts.
Chick 7 weighs 3.4 oz and has no head spot, pale toes, darker legs.
Chick 8 weighs 3.4 oz and has a large diffuse head spot, pale legs, brown fronts.
Chick 9 weighs 3.1 oz and has a large triangular head spot, pale legs, brown fronts.
Chick 10 (diff. mom) weighs 2.7 oz and has a small head spot and darker legs.
Here are some pics coming up! My satellite keeps going out, in case the pics stop before chick 10!
Oh, BTW, chicks 2, 5, 7, 9 have long tail feathers (1 inch)
Chicks 3, 8 and 10 have short tail feathers (1/2 inch or less)
Chicks 1 and 4 have no tail feathers.
Edited to add: Parents - mom is most likely a dark cornish-black australorp cross. Dad is most likely barred rock.
Claire
This message was edited Aug 14, 2008 10:32 PM
The Guess the Roo Game
Chick 1 wing
Chick 1 head spot
Chick 1 legs
chick 2 wing
chick 2 head
chick 2 legs
chick 3 wing
Just throwing this out there--The tail feathers seem to work very well for some breeds. My Marans and Barnevelder roos all had noticeably shorter, less developed tail feathers than the pullets. Because there are other sex-linked markers for them, it was easy to make the correlation. The two Welsummers I had turned out to both be pullets, one was very slow to develop tail and wing feathers--still a pullet. The other was larger and much faster to feather out, even developed two sickle feathers--still a pullet.
The head spot works very well with Marans and Barred Rocks. Small tight well defined head spot--pullet. Larger more diffuse head spot--roo. But there is also a color difference with the Cuckoo Marans--the roos are noticeably lighter at hatch and remain that way. Not sure if the head spot holds with the barred color phases of all breeds.
Chick 3 head
Chick 3 legs
Thanks Catscan! The tail feathers are weird because the longest ones belong to 2 with large head spots and 2 with no head spots. I couldn't decide what that meant!
Oops, forgot 3 leg photo
Chick 4 wing
without looking at the pics, i put my money on 4,5,7 and 10 being pullets...
chick 4 head
Chick 4 legs
No idea, but this is really interesting to see all these differences. I'm totally curious about whether our two little chicks are pullets or roos. Any tips from anyone on telling the difference for two that have a silkie dad and bantam cochin mama?
Chick 5 wing
Chick 5 head
Chick 5 legs
Chick 6 wing
chick 6 head
chick 6 legs
Chick 7 wing
chick 7 legs
chick 7 head
chick 8 wing
chick 8 head
chick 8 legs
chick 9 wing
chick 9 head
chick 9 legs
chick 10 wing
(mom barred rock, dad unknown)
chick 10 head
chick 10 legs
I keep expecting to see a chick with 5 legs, 6 legs, 10 legs.:0)
LOL! Now that would really confound me!
usually with barred rock or barred rock crosses and works same for cuckoo marans also. boys have larger head spots and paler legs, and barring faster with shorter wings when comeing in(they grow slower). girls have smaller head spot or none with shadows over fronts of legs and takes longer to see barring and longer wing feathers faster. on marans girls r black and boys r silver colored.
hope that helps,
silkie
Here's the head compilation shot.
My vote -3,6,8,9 are roos. What's the trick of reading wing feathers? (no I don't HAve any good chicken books -bad.KellyBAD.)