[Chrisnut]

Hi all ....

after my last post prior to the easter break and the devastation of a fox attack which took the majority of our flock i am pleased to announce the arrival of our first chicks, some hatched under a broody Buff and others in an incubator.


Can anyone advise on what age it is possible to sex the chicks and how...

we have a variety of breeds including light sussex, legbars, warrans, marrans, black rocks and of course our prized Buff orpingtons.

[mentalmilly]

l can usually tell at 6 weeks what they are if there is a bunch of them together, but having said that one lone chick l thought was a hen started to crow at 6 weeks and surprised us all.

[chrismahon]

Our Buff Orpingtons sex quite late. We have had two apparent pullets that became cockerels at 26 weeks Chrisnut. Legbars are autosexing.

[Mammyshaz]

Where are your  Chrisnut ? You must share your new arrivals with us 

I've got some Marans now 10 days old and hoping the fast maturing feathers of females is true, in which case I have 4 girls and 7 boys. The girls are each of the colours blue copper, splash and two black copper and well feathered wings and tail compared to the 7 others.

It's much harder with a mix of breeds as I'm guessing they will feather up at different ages depending on breed 

[ellied]

Where are your pictures?!  At least you can tell with the legbars, good luck working out the rest.

And Mammyshaz too, I'm still looking for Maran girls so even if not selling I'd love to know how you work it out at that age so I can hopefully get what I'm looking for and not pick boys by mistake

[Chrisnut]

Hi

Thanks for the replies.... i appreciate there is no definitive way of sexing our chicks other than the auto sexing breeds.... whilst we kind of know what breeds the hens were we didnt really know what breed or cross the cockerel was when it comes to the eggs incubated from our old flock.... however the buffs we know will be purebreeds as they only ever kept company with our Buff cockerel... i've attached some pictures albeit they are only day olds right now