Is she a he?!?! [Updated with PICS]

[Mrs MIA]

Uh oh is right... that's a roo. Packing peanuts usually are. Sorry...

 

[ravenfeathers]

i'm going to guess not only is it a roo, it's a broiler. or a mutant!

 

[lisahaschickens]

I have to tell you that I have no clue at all because I am new to chickens as well, but I would almost swear that bigger chick is older than the other one. My chicks (including three Buff Orps that are supposed to be pullets) will be 4 weeks old tomorrow or maybe Saturday (they arrived in the mail on a Monday morning) and I have been taking pictures nearly everyday since then. The giant chick looks like my chicks at about three-four weeks.

Also, I have been posting about my straight-run Marans for help on figuring out the sexes and I've had several people tell me that the boys usually feather out more slowly than the girls. Then again, I, too, have a giant chick (mine is a Marans) that is also way more feathered out than the rest, and from all the pics, everyone agrees he's a boy. So, I have to say, I'm not so sure anyone can really, truly tell until they start crowing or laying...

Here are some pics for reference:

at two weeks:

at three weeks:

3.5 weeks:

I have no idea if any of that helps because I am still figuring things out, but it just truck me when I saw your pictures that the giant chick just seems older in every way... which could mean boy for all I know. Oh yeah and all my Buff Orps had a little early comb growth...

 

[hinkjc]

Based on the size difference, it almost looks like you got a mix of bantam and large fowl.

 

[misspoppins]

Wow, this is really weird. I don't think the big one is another breed, because they all have the same coloring and everything. Plus they all looked exactly the same upon arrival, which is why I don't think the big one is any older. Hmm.....

 

[ravenfeathers]

Quote:
no, he definitely wouldn't be older or he wouldn't have survived in transit. hatcheries can only ship day-old chicks. if they shipped a two week old chick, chances are good that the little feller would starve to death!

your colouring would be the same between a BO chick and most chicks that would end up white as adults. and they also would look the same as day-old chicks, just that a broiler would get much bigger much faster. are their legs the same colour? it's hard to tell from the photos. i know that one of my local feed stores sells cornishX and white leghorns in the same brooder and the only difference in the first few days is the colour of their legs. after that, you can tell by which are gigantic.

oh, and i also wanted to say that my roo, who was a sexing mistake and not a peanut, was never any bigger than the pullets. in fact, i'd say he was smaller than they were for several months, or looked it because of his lack of feathering. his legs were bigger around, but not longer and his body certainly wasn't appreciably bigger, let alone twice as big. he was very definitely a roo, though, showing unmistakable signs by about three weeks.

 

[lisahaschickens]

I have to say that I have spent a lot of time reading threads about determining sexes and I've posted my own pictures and looked at lots of others and had lots and lots of input and read sets of rules that are supposed to be hard and fast for determining sexes and I have to tell you... all the input is different. I've read that roos develop faster and girls are slower, I've read that roos are slower in development. I've read that roos are bigger, smaller, early combs, late combs, different comb colors, etc. I've read a lot of things, but I just have come to the conclusion that it's simply not that clear cut. The best input I've read is that you can tell when they start laying or crowing. Of course, there are exceptions with things like sex-links that can be color sexed from birth.

Anyway, keep us posted on how the chick turns out. I read back through my post and I guess I didn't word it that well... I didn't mean to imply that it's older... just that it looks older, which might be an indication of something depending on the breed, but I'm a newbie so I wouldn't know what it means. It's just that your pics were familiar to me as they looked similar to my own and I am still learning