Bourbons Reds male or female?

[turksinmaine]

so this is unreliable on a bourbon red? they are light feathered, for now anyhow.

 

[R2elk]

so this is unreliable on a bourbon red? they are light feathered, for now anyhow.

Bourbon Reds are considered dark colored. Light colored ones are whites and palms, etc. By the time that the breast feathering works, there are already other signs such as toms being bigger, having heavier legs, having a larger snood or a snood that swells much larger than a hen's snood, the beginning of spurs, tom's head coloring becoming much darker than a hen, hen's retaining a "mohawk" up the back of their heads while tom's heads go bald except for some hairs and of course the toms beginning to gobble.

Strutting although more frequent with toms can also be done by hens especially during dominance displays in breeding season. Both toms and hens can also have beards although a hen's beard will not be as heavy a growth as a tom's beard.

 

[zoe95423]

It appears that they may be old enough to use the breast feather technique.  On dark feathered birds, the breast feathers of hens have a light bottom edge.  In your second pic, the hen appears to have light strips on the bottom edge of her breast feathers.  Males will not have that light edging but will have the bottom edge of the breast feathers the same color as the rest of the feather.  It appears that your first pic of your claimed tom also has light edging to its breast feathers indicating that it should also be a hen.  The first pic appears to have the mohawk also associated with being a hen.

Your other pictures aren't of the type necessary to tell if any of them are hens or toms.

Good luck figuring it all out.

I can't attempt to get better photos. Maybe not as good as you, I only have a 22mp cellphone camera.
Do you want better headshots? And I can try to get their feathers up close.

 

[R2elk]

Quote:
Try to get individual photos. Your last photo was a good shot for attempting to ID by use of breast feathers. Mainly just get much closer pictures. With 22mp you have lots of room to crop if you use a program to process your photos. My camera is only 12mp but I take closer pictures and then process and resize them.

Good luck.

 

[turksinmaine]

mine will be 9 weeks old tuesday. you mind I take pix of mine over course next few days then post them get your opinion sex male or female?

 

[zoe95423]

Individual pictures of all of them, probably won't happen... I can't tell them apart to tell who I got photos of and who I didn't... The only time I can't catch them is at night when they're roosting. The problem with a cellphone camera is, its 22mp but once I zoom or crop, I lose ALOT of the good quality.
I will stalk them outdoors and try. For the most part they're friendly... But it seems they don't like their picture taken.
Turksinmaine sure, post away

 

[zoe95423]

Okay, lets see if these are good. I got a few head shots of obvious hens, and their feathers.

 

[zoe95423]

Now some obvious Tom pictures.

 

[zoe95423]

This is the one I'm not sure on... Of course, it wouldn't get close enough to me to get good photos.
Tonight when they're all roosting I'm going to try to take a few group pictures.

I don't mean to sound dumb, but I can't see much of a difference in their feathers. Can someone post the obvious with bourbon reds? Can you tell with my laes and females?

 

[R2elk]

Now some obvious Tom pictures.

If you are sure that is a tom, they are too young to use the breast feather method for sexing them as the turkey in that photo clearly has light edges on its breast feathers which would indicate it is a hen.

Bourbon Red tom - no light edges on the breast feathers.

Bourbon Red hen - light edges on the breast feathers