Sexing Cuckoo Maran chicks

[urbanhomesteader]

My Cuckoo Marans are five days old. How soon should I be able to tell the boys from the girls? Do I have to wait till their feathers have all grown in or is the baby fluff color indicitave of sex as well? I have one who is way lighter than the others who I have assumed is a roo's but there are two in between the darkest "girl" and the lightest "roo".

Here is a picture with the "roo" on the left.

By the way they did NOT like the camera!

 

[mlheran]

This site has a bit of info on sexing and some chick photos (at the very bottom):
http://www.feathersite.com/Poultry/CGK/Marans/BRKMarans.html

From what I've read, the females are dark and the males are lighter. But it's also not an exact science.

Good luck though, I have two CM chicks as well so I'm glad there are other people here raising them!

 

[speckledhen]

Same as Barred Rocks, the males usually have a much larger, splotchier headspot, plus their white bars are wider, making the overall look grayish or silvery rather than darker black. This is not 100% as I have a BR hen that was thought to be a cockerel for months-she didn't read the rule book, LOL.

 

[ginasmarans]

I can get an idea after a few days. The female will alot of times be darker and are more likely to have black going down their legs. Sometimes, you will have chicks hatch out that are more silver than black. Those should be roos. I has 22 hatch out about 3 weeks ago. At 1 day old I predicted 10 pullets and 7 roos. I am going to move them to an outside cage within the next few days and make another prediction. We'll see how I change my first one.

 

[The Laird]

I have two Cuckoo Marans that survived from my first shipment of chicks. One is lighter and one is darker. I thought the darker one was a male because it is bigger than the light one, but now, at 5 weeks old, the smaller lighter one appears to have the beginnings of a comb and the larger, darker one doesn't. The "female" also has feathers on her legs, where as the ma;e doesn't. Different strains, I guess. I have 9 more in my second batch. They are 2 1/2 weeks old, but I really can't tell any difference yet. No feathers on their legs.