Are these three 'female' cream legbar chicks really female?

[Nickerly]

Hello!

I'm totally new to this forum and new-ish to keeping chickens, so sorry if I have broken any rules or general etiquette points.

I purchased three (cream) legbar chicks two days ago. Chose this breed because they autosex, apparently. The breeder told me that they had hatched six boys and three girls, which was lucky as I wanted three girls.

However, having looked online I'm now unsure if these ones are actually female. Two of them have a yellow mark on their head, which is a sign of a male chick.

I'd really like to know now, so I could return them if possible, rather than falling in love with these tiny creatures and having my neighbours protest at the sound later down the line.

From these pictures, do you think these are male or female chicks?

 

[Hillaire]

I definitely do see the yellow spots on the head which USSUALLY indicates male...

 

[Nickerly]

That's what I thought

Only one has the yellow spot, but is very dark in colourings otherwise. In comparison, all his other brothers at the seller's home were very light and very obviously male.

So I either have a female with a head spot, or a dark male with striping.

I wonder if I can just wait it out and hope that it'll turn out to be female…

 

[Duckies Girls]

They all look like female chicks to me. My males are always really light colored, with very faded markings and a big yellow spot on the head. I've had a couple of chicks that were colored with female markings and a tiny spot like that, and they grew up to be hens. When I researched it, I found other blogs online where people mentioned some of their girls having tiny spots as well.

 

[Nickerly]

I'm really hoping she's a girl… If not, she'll have to be returned. Unless s/he promises to be very quite and not make any babies.

 

[Duckies Girls]

If it helps, here's a picture of some chicks I've hatched. The first two are CCLB males, the third chick is an olive egger, the fourth is a CCLB female.

 

[Nickerly]

If it helps, here's a picture of some chicks I've hatched. The first two are CCLB males, the third chick is an olive egger, the fourth is a CCLB female.

Thank you so much. I'm leaning towards female again now. The breeder was very experienced so maybe I give them the benefit of the doubt.

I almost walked out of there with a few silkies and a handful of beautiful crested Polish chicks too.

They also offered to throw in a male legbar for free, but I declined because we live in a small house in London and our neighbours might complain.

 

[Duckies Girls]

Haha, buying chicks anywhere is a dangerous task! Chicken math will get ya every time. The good news is you will be able to tell pretty quickly if any are male. I can always call it 100% by week four, referencing the feather coloring and comb size/color.

 

[donrae]

I haven't hatched any CCL myself, but have followed several threads here about them. I think those are pullets.

The white head spot is linked to the barring gene. It's usually more visible against black chick down, like the classic barred Rocks, etc. Male CCLs have two copies of the barring gene, giving them a bigger, more distinct head spot at hatch. But, the females still have one copy of the barring gene, so it stands to reason they'll have a small head spot from time to time. I don't know if they would be a cull for the autosexing trait if you were breeding, but sounds like that's not a concern for you at this time.

 

[BantamLover21]

They look like pullets to me, too.