Does chick behaviour have anything to do with gender?

[Bobthechicken123]

I recently purchased 10 chicks to add to my flock, Im wondering if chick behaviour at a young age has anything to do with wether they are young pullets or roos, I have one or my leghorn chicks always squaring up and pecking my finger whenever I touch one of their sisters to move them or whenever I am changing the water or food, it's also the only one that is always squaring up to the other chicks, this may be a dumb question but I'm curious to know, thanks.

 

[WIchickMama]

good question, I will be interested to see what others say.

Maybe it is a show of gender or it could be the chicks just determining their own pecking order. I too have a couple that chest bump each other and I am pretty sure they are pullets, but are still too young to be certain.

 

[RubelliteRose]

I've only had chickens for 2 years and raised 4 batches of chicks, but from what I have seen, if the chicks are very young(under a month or two), then behavior doesn't really indicate gender. In our case, our most aggressive finger peckers have both been girls. We, however, did not allow aggressive finger pecking. The one who tried to aggressively peck (different than an exploratory peck or friendly peck if that makes sense) got a gentle bop on the head with our finger. Similar to how a mother hen would correct them.
With chest bumping, the boys started it more often, but sometimes the girls would chest bump too.
We have been able to pick out all of our boys (7 of them) starting around 3 weeks, but only because they have all had combs turning at that age. Slight behavioral changes didn't really appear until closer to 3 months when the boys start to walk upright more often and the girls less so than the boys.

 

[SueT]

What she says.....