fried-or-boiled Posted June 5, 2009 Share Posted June 5, 2009 A friend who works in a primary school has contacted me regarding the chicks they have hatched. The school is looking for homes for the chicks and seeing as the fox took my lovely 3 ex-batts recently I have a few vacancies in my eglu. There are 8 chicks, 4 of which are classic pale yellow 'chick' colour, the other 4 are much darker - there is a clear difference. I have been told by someone that pale chicks are boys and by someone else that pale chicks are girls! Can anyone help - I want girls and am desperate for my eglu to be a home again - thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Egluntyne Posted June 5, 2009 Share Posted June 5, 2009 Unless they come from an auto sexing type breed, (specially bred so that the differences are apparent on hatching)you have to wait for the secondary characteristics to emerge and that can take weeks or even months. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Griffin Posted June 5, 2009 Share Posted June 5, 2009 Unless you know the parents you can't go by colour alone. My Light Sussex & Leghorns were all yellow too and I ended up with three boys & two girls. I knew for sure around 6 weeks because boys tend to grow combs & wattles faster than girls. Other breeds are slower growing though so it'll take longer to tell. I've got four mixed breed chicks that hatched on February 1st. There are two in that lot that even now I'm not 100% sure about. I'm fairly sure they're both girls and I'll know for certain when they crow or lay an egg Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smanners Posted June 6, 2009 Share Posted June 6, 2009 I have 5 legbar chicks who I knew from day old that are 3 boys and 2 girls from their markings/colouring. At just 3 weeks old one of the leghorns has developed a large comb quite quickly and from observing his behaviour he squares up to the 3 other boys (puffed chests at dawn ) The others I have no idea, they have similar size combs and have feathered up in a similar way. Guess I'll get to know soon enough Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jules. Posted June 6, 2009 Share Posted June 6, 2009 (puffed chests at dawn ) That's what my cockerels do, you have described it exactly! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
