Any guesses on sex of these 3-1/2 (almost 4 week) old Lavender Orpington chicks? :)

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myers509

myers509

Hatching
Mar 17, 2016
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One of them has a well-defined pointy tail and 3 have tails that are just beginning. The comb with the darker black spots is from the one with the tail, the last picture is from one that is less feathered at the tail. All 4 seem to have pretty long wings and I cannot for the life of me tell much about their beaks. I am wondering if the tail may mean that I have 1 pullet and 3 cockerels or 3 pullets and 1 roo-to-be... or maybe it's too early to tell? I am new to Orpingtons and sexing chicks in general. My luck would be for 3 roos. :-/ :) Any insight is very much appreciated!
 
Right now they are too young to guess. Re-post when they are about 8 weeks old. Ahhh, the waiting game! I remember it well!
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I'm a newbie and know nothing about Orpington,but all my pullets are the same age as yours and all have long tails. It seems those ones with small tails have pink combs? If so, I guess all boys. The one with long tail has yellow comb should be a pullet, just as all my pullets look like now.
 
Tails really don't say a lot if anything about gender. Some chickens feather out faster than others. When I had my first chicks I thought some were going to be male based on tail growth and they all turned out to be pullets. When your chicks are 9 weeks old they will be feathered out pretty well and we can make a better judge by then. Even then, some breeds you still have to wait until 12 weeks to make a good call!
 
My favorite way to tell sex is to look at legs. If they have little buds coming out of their legs, they are cockrels, if not then they are pullets. If none of them have buds, I couldn't tell ya. I am not the best sexer.
 
Pattycat said:
My favorite way to tell sex is to look at legs. If they have little buds coming out of their legs, they are cockrels, if not then they are pullets. If none of them have buds, I couldn't tell ya. I am not the best sexer.
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In my experience, signs of spur development does not necessarily indicate gender, or if it does, I have a few "cross-dressers" in my flock
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(it could well do in certain breeds, i honestly don't know). I guess trying to successfully ID the gender is a combination of observations, mixed with a bit of guesswork. Young cockerels (or what turn out to be) seem to be more inquisitive and confident compared to their more aloof sisters, but I'm also sure thats just one more observation to go into the melting pot at a young age.

CT
 
Pattycat said:
My favorite way to tell sex is to look at legs. If they have little buds coming out of their legs, they are cockrels, if not then they are pullets. If none of them have buds, I couldn't tell ya. I am not the best sexer.
Click to expand...
This is totally incorrect pullets also show bumps on legs. Spurs take months to be visible
 

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