Help? Sexing Welsummer & Cuckoo Maran chicks

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living2ride

living2ride

Songster
11 Years
Feb 17, 2008
179
1
131
Illinois
I ordered Welsummer and Cuckoo Maran eggs from eBay. I had 3 Welsummers hatch and 4 Cuckoo Marans.
Can anyone tell the boys from the girls?
First the Marans. From what I've been told, I'm thinking the two silvery ones on the left are boys, and the two darker ones on the right are girls. But I've never had these breeds before, so I have no clue. Thanks for any help!
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Now the Welsummers have me perplexed. I wasn't expecting any blonde chicks. I thought they were all chipmunky looking, with the difference being in the stripes. So someone more familiar will have to fill me in:
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I've never heard of a solid welsummer chick. I've only ever seen chipmunk striped ones. As for sexing by stripe it's usually the darker striped ones are female but Mothergoose sexes her Welsummers at a week of age by their combs.
 
I just read in another post, that BamaChicken says that in Cuckoo Marans, the males will be light almost silvery, and the females will be dark almost black. Hope that helps. It's good info since I have a bator full of CM's right now.
 
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Thanks, I read that post too, which makes me think the two on the left are boys and the two on the right are girls. But since these are the only CM chicks I've ever seen, I'm not sure how distinct and obvious the difference is. Either way, they sure are adorable.
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I see two cockerels in the Marans, the silvery ones with big headspots.
Welsummers are not my forte. I do know that there is more than one color pattern for them, Silver Duckwing and Gold Duckwing as well as the brown red most common, but the chipmunky looking one is the one most people think of. Not sure how those duckwing colors look as chicks, though. Maybe someone else can help with those.
 
I am not gonna be any help as day olds, either.
As for the color of the welsummer chicks, they technically should be the chipmunk color. I have had some hatch with a redder cast to them, but still chipmunk striped.

How was the egg color that they came out of?
Were the yellow chicks shells dark or light?

If it was dark, it would be interesting to see what they look like feathered out. And the egg color they lay.

Christie

P.S. There are other color patterns for the welsummers overseas, but the only color pattern here in the USA is the black breasted red.
 
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I would say 2 males on the left (even my cuckoo mix chick males were marked the same) As for welsummers, I have never seen the solid color either, all mine looked like little chipmunks..
 
Thanks for clearing that up about the other color patterns, Christie. Why does Europe always have the interesting colors in all these breeds?? I knew there were supposedly other colors, but had never seen any of them, especially the chicks. Wonder if the breeder got some eggs mixed up somehow? Still, if they were Welsummer eggs, they shouldn't be able to mix them up, right?
 

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