Why are boys always prettier?

I have 4 EEs that are about 18 days old. They were IDENTICAL when we picked them up. They were supposedly sexed as girls. They are getting their adult feathers. 3 are have brown and black feathers coming in, very drab. 1 has these BEAUTIFUL white shiny feathers coming in. Sorry the photos aren't clear - that red heat lamp messes with my phone.

I know they are too young for me to successfully sex, but I think this one is a boy - he's just too pretty.

None of them really have any comb development yet. Other than the color of the feathers, they all look the same. What do you think? Think it's a boy?





Here are 2 of the others

If they are sexed as girls they are probably all girls.
That being said sexing isn't toally accurate so it is possible to get boys in supposedly all girl chicks. It's too early to tell if they are different genders, especially if there is no difference in comb development.

Just hope that that beautiful chick is a female!

XxMingirlxX said:

If they are sexed as girls they are probably all girls.
That being said sexing isn't toally accurate so it is possible to get boys in supposedly all girl chicks. It's too early to tell if they are different genders, especially if there is no difference in comb development.

Just hope that that beautiful chick is a female!

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Thank you!! I hope it's a girl too! Other than the silkies, all the boys I've ended up with, have all been flashier from early on. My silkies roo really doesn't look that different than the females.

I've seen EE pullets that color, but I agree, whenever I see that color in my own chicks, it screams boy to me. And it usually is. So yours is a girl

I've had some pretty flashy Silkie roosters, but they do lean towards the feminine side. The boys have to be flashy to attract the ladies

Of the 20 straight run silkies chicks I got, 13 ended up being roos. I kept the only black/grey one. He really isn't flashy, but he seems to be doing a good job of fertilizing the eggs! The Buff roos were flashy, but all the buff chicks I got were roos. I have 2 silkie eggs I hatched that should be buff. Hopefully at least one of them is a pullet. The white roos weren't that flashy. I'll know in a few months about this one. I'm hoping for a girl!

It's biological. Hens are, as you said, drab colored, smooth, even coloring, designed for camouflage when setting on a nest. Their motto is "You can't see me". They don't need to be flashy to draw the attention of the males, either. It's the males that need to do the courting, not the hens.

Roosters, on the other hand, are all "Look at me! Here I am!" with their coloring. They draw the attention not only of the females, but of the predators. If he's got a hen setting on eggs somewhere and the predator sees and eats him, it means his chicks get another day, another chance at survival.

for us backyarders, it means getting rid of some very pretty birds, though. When/if I ever have the facilities, I plan to have lots of free range roosters, or a large bachelor pad. I love roosters, they're just so pretty.

donrae said:

They draw the attention not only of the females, but of the predators. If he's got a hen setting on eggs somewhere and the predator sees and eats him, it means his chicks get another day, another chance at survival.

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Thank you
I always wonder what is the biological advantage of the color of the male birds. your explanation is the best so far

Edited to say, even biologists say: Those colors attract the females, my argument is: if it has no biological advantage it shouldn't attract females, females who are attracted to evolutionary disadvantageous traits loose the race of evolution as their genes disappear because of their bad choice

But, it's not a bad choice if the male with the flashy colors and the beautiful song gets to breed with the most females. It is a biological advantage. B/C those bright colors do entice the female to enter into the breeding territory of that particular male. And he can use those colors to draw any potential predators away from his drab female who may be incubating eggs or sitting on a nest full of babies. As far as the EE with the bright white feathers, it could be any one's guess regarding gender. Because EE are bred from a huge gene pool with many variations in feather coloring. If that chick displays other traits that scream "male": 3 rows of peas instead of 1, responds to loud noises by scanning for the location, instead of going into duck and hide mode, perhaps more social interaction with humans early on, compared to the females, or increased aggressive responses to either humans or flock mates. With my EE, red breast and shoulder patches tend to be early indicators of males.

I was always taught it was to draw the attention of the predators to distract them, or help scare them off with the bright hackle feathers flaring out from the neck. I think the gold or silver hackles most males have look larger when flared than the more sedate colors of the females.

I think maybe, an argument could be made that if a male is so flashy and attention-drawing in color, and he's still alive long enough to reach sexual maturity, he's doing something right and is a good potential mate. Poor guys are kind of at a disadvantage (in a wild flock situation) with those bright colors. I'm sure in the jungle, young cockerels get eaten before young pullets---but that's just my theory.

donrae said:

I'm sure in the jungle, young cockerels get eaten before young pullets---but that's just my theory.

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On hatching you have one male to one female, for reproduction you need one male for 10 females, so for survival of the species, males have to get only 10% chance of survival