Sexing Chicks - Help! (updated, current pics)

[Equest94]

I posted a while ago about how to tell which gender your chicks are; however, they were too young to be able to tell through pictures so I took a few more yesterday. They are much bigger and have most of their adult feathers in.

There are a few things that have been brought to my attention and I was also hoping you could help clear these up for me.
* I noticed that the red chick and the yellow/black chick tend to run at each other, hop in the air, bump chests, chirp at each other, and then they're fine. My grandma thinks they are both roosters and are fighting; however, they aren't aggressive toward each other in that sense...all 3 of the bigger chicks tend to huddle together and even play together - they'll run around and chase eacher, hop around and such.... Do you think those 2 are roosters or is it just a general behavior that both genders do in order to establish a pecking order(those 2 are higher on the pecking order list)?
* I also noticed that 3 of my 4 chicks (includng the "runt") have some comb development already; however, the yellow/grey-white one has nothing at all...it's just a smooth slope into it's beak. It is my understanding that hens of certain breeds also have smaller combs, but this one has nothing at all...Does this mean it is a hen, or does it just have a "defect"?.


Here are updated pictures:

"Ginger" (red/white chick):
http://s47.photobucket.com/albums/f194/MCFNEO/?action=view&current=061807_2120.jpg
http://s47.photobucket.com/albums/f194/MCFNEO/?action=view&current=061907_1008b.jpg
(^^^ not 1 legged, just odd pic angle)

"Spanky" (yellow/black chick):
http://s47.photobucket.com/albums/f194/MCFNEO/?action=view&current=061807_2122.jpg
http://s47.photobucket.com/albums/f194/MCFNEO/?action=view&current=061907_1003.jpg

"Bo-Peep" (yellow/grey-white chick *** the combless one...):
http://s47.photobucket.com/albums/f194/MCFNEO/?action=view&current=061907_1005a.jpg
http://s47.photobucket.com/albums/f194/MCFNEO/?action=view&current=061907_1007.jpg

"Lucy" (black-brown/smokey grey cochin chick):
http://s47.photobucket.com/albums/f194/MCFNEO/?action=view&current=061807_1331.jpg
(^^^ this little one's leg was injured and is still in the process of healing....so it's a lot smaller due to the trauma and infection

)

Group shot (I was trying to takes pics and they actually ambushed me):
http://s47.photobucket.com/albums/f194/MCFNEO/?action=view&current=061807_2130a.jpg

I read online that there are certain wives-tales things you can do to figure out the gender of your chicks. Someone said that if you flip them onto their backs...roosters tend to sprawl their legs out while hens tend to keep them tucked in...I tried that just for the hell of it and my chicks switched every time. First their legs would tuck in....next time I tried they'd stretch them out, another time one leg would be in nd the other would be out...so I have not clue. Again, I am new to this chicken-raising thing, and I'm hoping that we have a few hens in our small flock especially since we got them for eggs... If anyone could help me figure their genders out I'll greatly appreciate it. Thanks.

 

[mlheran]

Well to answer your question about combs, there are about nine different types of combs; Single (the stereotypical chicken comb), Rose, Spiked Rose, Cusion, Pea, Walnut, Strawberry, Buttercup, and V. You can view some rough drawings of them here: http://www.urbanext.uiuc.edu/eggs/res11-combs.html And this site has a nice chart to compare breed characteristics: http://www.ithaca.edu/staff/jhenderson/chooks/chooks.html

Your Bo-Peep looks like an Easter Egger/Americauna to me, and that breed has a pea comb (which is rather short in adults), so it's practically non-existant on chicks.

About the chest-bumping, yes, roos do that, but so do pullets. The short answer is ALL chickens do it to sort out the peck order, so that behaviour alone will not guarantee a roo. Only comb and wattle develpment will tell you the sex. Unfortunately I can't really see anything, comb-wise, in your pics but I think the red & white chick might be a Sex-Link pullet (oh wait, does she have feathered feet? Maybe a Cochin then).

Spanky might be an Easter Egger too, but I can't really tell the color of her legs (if they are green or slate, she likely is).

Hopefully someone with better eyes than mine will give you some answers!

 

[Equest94]

Quote:
Thank you so much for all your information, those comb sketches gave me a great insight. "Bo-Peep" and "Spanky" are Easter Eggers... they have greenish colored feet... as for "Ginger," yes he/she does have feathering on it's legs so I too assume it is some kind of cochin...they all turned out so differently from what I expected them to look like when they were chicks. Haha, I have an interesting flock. Again, thank you.

 

[panner123]

I have no good advice on this one for I have been fooled many times. From the wisdom of my 6 year old grand daughter, "when it lays an egg, it's a hen. When it crows is dinner most times."

 

[DementedHam]

love the feathering on spanky. my guess

boy

girl

unsure

boy