how do you tell if a baby chick is a boy or girl?

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debid said:
So, really, you're saying that you believe chicks can be sexed from a very young age based on how fast their feathers grow? Sometimes that's true. Some folks breed birds with the intent of being able to feather sex by growth pattern. But the typical breeder/hatchery does not and the trick won't work on chicks that weren't bred for feather sexing. It's simply not a universal truth that males feather slowly.

I had 10 chicks in the brooder and when the dog would come around, the one cockerel chick would hide under the nearest pullet. The chick most likely to stick her neck out was the alpha of the group. So, gender meant nothing behavior-wise until sexual maturity in my small sample group.

Like so many of these supposed gender tests, I think it's approximately 50% accurate. ;-)
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That's what I figured! (But it was interesting to watch them react)
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My bossiest pullet that practically herds the others was the first to drop and freeze, and the last one to feel safe and start walking about again..so I'm guessing although she's bossy, she won't be the alpha..
 
With most breeds it's true that the tail feathers and such glow out slower on a cockerel but my experience in hatching Orpingtons has been - you can't depend on that. And since they all have big legs, you can't depend on that either. Now if it has wattles at 3 weeks old like one did I had, yeah, you can pretty much know it's a boy.

That farmer sounds like he's been around them for a long time. Once you've hatched and looked at them long enough, you begin to get a feel for which is which as babies. It's nothing that anyone can tell you in print. I don't yet have an unerring eye like that but there are some that just "look like girls" and some that "look like boys" and I can't even tell you why.

Point is, with Orpingtons you can't go by all the same things you can with other breeds always. Wing sexing doesn't work either. The guy gave you 4 girls and 1 boy last time so just take his word for it. Even the pro's looking up their butts in hatcheries make mistakes.
 
i have a female buff orpington she had tail feathers when she was that age so i'm pretty sure the one with the tail feathers are females
 
FiFiChooky123 said:
How old are they in that picture? What did they turn out to be?
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I'm guessing they were just a few days old when i took the pic. the guy at the store was right, we have 4 hens and 1 roo. so the debate is over, it's a proven fact. if i haven't mentioned it before, this is not the first time he was right, he was right with our rode island reds and our white leghorns also, i.got one roo each to prove it.
 
so from reading this thread a 4 hr old chick wont have a tail?


i was hoping to find out if you can tell if a chick is tailed or tailless as the father of this chick is a french bred araucana (avatar)
its mother is the light red hen with white tail
 

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