Hi there from NE Pa

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bttrflylvr76

bttrflylvr76

Hatching
Apr 23, 2015
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Hi All,
My name is Heather. I am relatively new to raising chickens, we got our first half dozen red sexlinks last spring. Five of them ended up disappearing @ five months old and just Lucky was left. She is an outstanding layer. Halfway through summer we were given 3 black cuckoo maran chicks and they are laying now too. Their egg sizes vary in color and size drastically, but they are excellent layers too. Recently I noticed that one is laying an egg with no hard shell.
About five weeks ago we got 4 red rock pullets and four weeks ago we got 10 black australorps that weren't sexed. I'm really hoping for no rooster, but I'm sure that's not a realistic thought. I can't wait for them to be big enough to post pics for you guys to give me your opinions. What age is a good time to start guessing? I have no experience with roosters.
 
Hello and welcome to BYC!:) I'll make it short and sweet about the roosters, you will not be able to tell until they start to mature and eventually once they get about 6-10 weeks old, if there are roosters, their red combs will be taller/ larger than the rest. I tried to get a straight run of chickens (unsexed batch) and wound up getting 8 rooster out of 10 total.. won't be doing that again! But I wish you the best of luck with your growing flock and hope you enjoy the site!!
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Nice to meet you Heather. Welcome to Backyard chickens.

Do you think predators got your 5 mos. old red sex links? Did you find any signs like piles of feathers, blood, partially
eaten birds? My reason for asking is 5 mos. is an odd time to have them disappear. I'm wondering if a two legged predator felt they'd be laying soon or make good meals and snatched them up. Maybe the 6th. one was too hard to catch. Were they free ranging or removed from the run or coop?

Maybe you should check out the coops and predator threads to see what you can do to prevent losing more.

Are you girls getting layer feed with a dish of crushed oyster shell on the side, so they can take it as they need it. They need calcium to form good, hard shells.
 
Welcome to BYC, I am a bit south west of you but there are a lot of Pa folks on here.... you should hop over to the Pa Unite thread to say hello to everyone!.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/248345/pennsylvania-unite/51470#post_15154691

as far as your BA's.... I would expect to be able to get a good idea after 8 weeks or so, but it takes some really clear pictures of their lower back/base of tail (saddle) and the base of their neck (hackle) to get a good idea, those feathers will tend to be pointy on the cockerels and blunt or rounded on the pullets.
 

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