Starboardlabs
In the Brooder
- Feb 12, 2017
- 18
- 33
- 34
Hi Everyone! I am a new chicken mom and have been searching BYC since day one for hints and tips on sexing chicks, especially speckled sussex. I must have read every post. Some were really informative and some had a lot of members giving their observations and input, but in the end, the original poster never posted the final result. A lot of times poster will say cockerel or pullet, but we're left hanging. So I thought I would write this post documenting my observations and pics of my speckled from arrival to 10 wks.
A couple of things I'll add - at this point, I do know 100% of the sex, but I'll leave that to the end. And the other is regarding the pics, lol, yes, I do sit in the brooder pen once it's been cleaned, so don't mind my toesies.
DAY 3. My SS arrived from MPC. I unpacked the other 5 chicks and put them in the brooder, but my SS was the only one to jump out of the box. The SS was from day 1 the most bold, the most upright in posture and seemed to be the leader of the pack.
1 WEEK OLD: SS still is the boldest and same upright posture. I chose this pic to show the head spot and the feather development. About the spot, there were posts regarding SS saying that if the spot on the head was separate from the chipmunk strip down the back, it was usually a cockerel. And while it doesn't show a comparison in this pic, the tail feather development was slower than on the other chicks, but, since this was the only SS, I never had a direct comparison to the same breed.
2 WEEKS OLD: Again, there is that posture. The tail feathers are coming in, but aside from the Cochin and Favaucana, they aren't as full as the other. At this point I did post and pic on a FB thread and everyone that saw it came to the same conclusion: "roo". The legs appear thicker than all the others and the comb is starting to sprout a bit more.
3-3.5 WEEKS OLD: As the feathers are starting to come in, I am beginning to see that the chest is predominantly white. This I read through many other threads was almost a sure sign of a cockerel. At this point, my SS has the largest comb in the room. The first pic is at 3wks and has a good view of the comb. Pic 2 is several days later and you can see the solid white poking out on the chest under the shoulder. I would add, the entire breast was solid white with only a few brown feathers scattered through.
4 WEEKS OLD: Comb still the biggest, and at the base, starting to look a little pinker. In the first pic you can see the comb and the white feathers running down the neck to the breast. The solid white continued all the way under the body, not just a little patch. And can I say, this is just the sweetest chick ever. The second pic shows the full side. At this point, the other breeds are walking with a more level back, the SS is always walking taller. I will say, having "one of each" chicks in rgard to breed makes it very difficult for a beginner to gage development of feathers in terms of when and how they come in and shape. With the Lavender Orpington that is in this batch, the feathers came in pretty fast and developed a rounder shape quickly. With the SS, all of he feathers seem more narrow, especially in the saddle area and tail.
5 WEEKS: The goofy first pic shows the white chest. More brown is starting to come in, but when I searched for images of SS ate this age with a white chest, all but 1 image I found of other peoples SS were cockerels. The 1 white chested pullet had more brown than mine though. Pic 2 show the side. Still biggest comb, and though it doesn't show in the pic, it is a deeper pink that the others, and the legs are still thicker that the other breeds in the pen.
6 WEEKS: You can see more brown filling into the chest - to my amazement. In the forground is the Lav Orp, you can see the size difference (width) of the feathers. Behind the SS is a Partridge Cochin, same age. You can see a difference in the comb colors and size.
7 WEEKS: This shows my SS a little long and lean, and oh yeah, little pink jowls. I beLieve I read in a past thread at this point that a whiter face on a SS was a sign of a cockerel. There was a SS breeder or 2 that posted pics of their laddies having a white face, but the majority agreed with lighter = cockerel. Another thing I read was about the sheen of the feathers. Pullets tend to have duller feathers, while cockerels would have a shine to them. This SS is super shiny, but, I was not seeing any other color aside from brown, black and white - no green.
8 WEEKS: I'm beginning to stress out a little at this point. One minute I would look and say cockerel, and a minute later I would say pullet. In my mind I an trying to form contingency plans as this bird is 1, my favorite, and 2 suuuuuper sweet. And we all know it's ALWAY the favorite that has to go :/ (preface to say that I have 2 issues, I have 5 more chickens than my town allows and we are not allowed roosters - so I need to stay under the radar). Here you see while the chest is filling in with brown (seriously, how did that miracle happen??), and you also see the face getting a little lighter. And *that* comb. I should say, that after sharing the pic once, I was afraid to repost. Only afraid because while I have always had a suspicion about the sex of this bird, I was always holding out hope for the actual outcome, so I didn't want to have different opinions either dashing my hopes or giving false hope. But I always intended to write this post, with pics and the outcome to help the next newbie. I found a lot of the information i have read about both sexing SS and chicks in general from long time breeders very valuable.
Those waddles, those long narrow feathers. Ugh. But again, I wondered if that was just a SS thing in general, or an indicator of sex.
9 WEEKS: One of the other things I delved into was going back to see if there were behavior clues. Aside from posture and boldness, I watched YouTube videos on the subject. Here's the thing, for the most part it's a crap shoot, lol. What I started to notice with all of the teens (at this point, the final tally is 13, I read somewhere you order a few more than you want in case of loss or if there are roosters you can't keep) - so at this point, I am seeing when I go to pet them, they all squat under my hand - except 1, who pushes up into my hand. But, no, it's not the SS, it's a Light Brahma that I have always suspected to be a cockerel - but that's another story, for another thread. This pic had me scratching my head, we see the pinker (but not red) comb and waddle stubs, but it seems the legs aren't quite as thick as I had remembered.
10 WEEKS: This is the last pic, but definitely not the *last* pic. Every morning I would wake up dreading if I was going to hear a crow. In other posts, I read of some early crow-ers and some that crowed late. I can see the other 11 of the funky bunch are indeed pullets, but the SS and Light Brahma had me curious. My original opinion of the SS had changed, but damn, that Light Brahma was definitely a cockerel, I'd bet on it. Off-topic, Brahma's are also notoriously hard to sex for the beginner, and a super slow bird when it comes to maturing. So, I made *the decision*. I'd plunk down my $40 lottery winnings and DNA test these 2 so I can finally: breathe easy or find homes for them and finally give them real names. So a bloody toe nail clipping and a couple of days later, I have my answer.
This is a 10 wk old profile pick. The face as darkened, and while I don't have a great pick of the chest, you can see a bit here, it filled in the beautiful brown / black speckled feathers with a smattering of white - much different from the solid white I was seeing weeks ago. Overall this bird has a beautiful shine to the feathers, and the earlier white speckles I was seeing along the back of the body have disappeared for the most part (I know the white will come back as the bird molts and ages), but overall the color is a rich mahogany with black speckling (some posters mentioned the darker birds tended to be males).
For those of you who stuck through this post, I hope you found it useful. My intention is not to say that any other persons observations were wrong, but I just wanted to put it in a perspective of how they applied to my bird. I'm sure there are Sussex people who will look at this and get the sex right from the first picture, which is awesome. I wanted to just compile info that is other there and illustrate it for the first time owners out there. I did see someone posted a pic of their SS a couple of weeks ago and it looked like mine at that age. The few people that replied all said 'roo' and the OP was left with that now he had a bird to get rid of. That made me sad. I didn't know the sex of mine at the time, so I didn't comment, but now knowing the sex puts things in perspective for me. Sometimes I think (and this is a huge generalization for ALL social media) people want to be helpful and want to voice an opinion, but sometime they will go with the crowd even if they don't have the experience to make the call - in this case, determine the sex of a chicken. So take the advice with a grain of salt, and if you really love the bird but the outcome is not what you hoped, either stick it out until your sure, or just get a definitive test done. In my case I said the reasons, and I did have a little $40 windfall
THE RESULTS:............ BOTH PULLETS!!!! The SS (now named Gidget, my surfin' bird) the last several weeks I started to lean to being female. She started to walk with a more level topline all the time as opposed to having a more rooster posture. And then there was the more submissive behavior. And while her comb was bigger and pinker and I was starting to see pink waddles, they never got any redder. So the result was a relief, but not a shock. The Brahma on the other hand was a total shocker, but that's a story for another post. And if anyone is wonder how I did with Rooster Roulette with ordering sexed pullets from MPC, all pullets, all survived, and yes, I'm over my town limit. At least my 2 adjacent neighbors are very happy about the chickens!
A couple of things I'll add - at this point, I do know 100% of the sex, but I'll leave that to the end. And the other is regarding the pics, lol, yes, I do sit in the brooder pen once it's been cleaned, so don't mind my toesies.
DAY 3. My SS arrived from MPC. I unpacked the other 5 chicks and put them in the brooder, but my SS was the only one to jump out of the box. The SS was from day 1 the most bold, the most upright in posture and seemed to be the leader of the pack.
1 WEEK OLD: SS still is the boldest and same upright posture. I chose this pic to show the head spot and the feather development. About the spot, there were posts regarding SS saying that if the spot on the head was separate from the chipmunk strip down the back, it was usually a cockerel. And while it doesn't show a comparison in this pic, the tail feather development was slower than on the other chicks, but, since this was the only SS, I never had a direct comparison to the same breed.
2 WEEKS OLD: Again, there is that posture. The tail feathers are coming in, but aside from the Cochin and Favaucana, they aren't as full as the other. At this point I did post and pic on a FB thread and everyone that saw it came to the same conclusion: "roo". The legs appear thicker than all the others and the comb is starting to sprout a bit more.
3-3.5 WEEKS OLD: As the feathers are starting to come in, I am beginning to see that the chest is predominantly white. This I read through many other threads was almost a sure sign of a cockerel. At this point, my SS has the largest comb in the room. The first pic is at 3wks and has a good view of the comb. Pic 2 is several days later and you can see the solid white poking out on the chest under the shoulder. I would add, the entire breast was solid white with only a few brown feathers scattered through.
4 WEEKS OLD: Comb still the biggest, and at the base, starting to look a little pinker. In the first pic you can see the comb and the white feathers running down the neck to the breast. The solid white continued all the way under the body, not just a little patch. And can I say, this is just the sweetest chick ever. The second pic shows the full side. At this point, the other breeds are walking with a more level back, the SS is always walking taller. I will say, having "one of each" chicks in rgard to breed makes it very difficult for a beginner to gage development of feathers in terms of when and how they come in and shape. With the Lavender Orpington that is in this batch, the feathers came in pretty fast and developed a rounder shape quickly. With the SS, all of he feathers seem more narrow, especially in the saddle area and tail.
5 WEEKS: The goofy first pic shows the white chest. More brown is starting to come in, but when I searched for images of SS ate this age with a white chest, all but 1 image I found of other peoples SS were cockerels. The 1 white chested pullet had more brown than mine though. Pic 2 show the side. Still biggest comb, and though it doesn't show in the pic, it is a deeper pink that the others, and the legs are still thicker that the other breeds in the pen.
6 WEEKS: You can see more brown filling into the chest - to my amazement. In the forground is the Lav Orp, you can see the size difference (width) of the feathers. Behind the SS is a Partridge Cochin, same age. You can see a difference in the comb colors and size.
7 WEEKS: This shows my SS a little long and lean, and oh yeah, little pink jowls. I beLieve I read in a past thread at this point that a whiter face on a SS was a sign of a cockerel. There was a SS breeder or 2 that posted pics of their laddies having a white face, but the majority agreed with lighter = cockerel. Another thing I read was about the sheen of the feathers. Pullets tend to have duller feathers, while cockerels would have a shine to them. This SS is super shiny, but, I was not seeing any other color aside from brown, black and white - no green.
8 WEEKS: I'm beginning to stress out a little at this point. One minute I would look and say cockerel, and a minute later I would say pullet. In my mind I an trying to form contingency plans as this bird is 1, my favorite, and 2 suuuuuper sweet. And we all know it's ALWAY the favorite that has to go :/ (preface to say that I have 2 issues, I have 5 more chickens than my town allows and we are not allowed roosters - so I need to stay under the radar). Here you see while the chest is filling in with brown (seriously, how did that miracle happen??), and you also see the face getting a little lighter. And *that* comb. I should say, that after sharing the pic once, I was afraid to repost. Only afraid because while I have always had a suspicion about the sex of this bird, I was always holding out hope for the actual outcome, so I didn't want to have different opinions either dashing my hopes or giving false hope. But I always intended to write this post, with pics and the outcome to help the next newbie. I found a lot of the information i have read about both sexing SS and chicks in general from long time breeders very valuable.
Those waddles, those long narrow feathers. Ugh. But again, I wondered if that was just a SS thing in general, or an indicator of sex.
9 WEEKS: One of the other things I delved into was going back to see if there were behavior clues. Aside from posture and boldness, I watched YouTube videos on the subject. Here's the thing, for the most part it's a crap shoot, lol. What I started to notice with all of the teens (at this point, the final tally is 13, I read somewhere you order a few more than you want in case of loss or if there are roosters you can't keep) - so at this point, I am seeing when I go to pet them, they all squat under my hand - except 1, who pushes up into my hand. But, no, it's not the SS, it's a Light Brahma that I have always suspected to be a cockerel - but that's another story, for another thread. This pic had me scratching my head, we see the pinker (but not red) comb and waddle stubs, but it seems the legs aren't quite as thick as I had remembered.
10 WEEKS: This is the last pic, but definitely not the *last* pic. Every morning I would wake up dreading if I was going to hear a crow. In other posts, I read of some early crow-ers and some that crowed late. I can see the other 11 of the funky bunch are indeed pullets, but the SS and Light Brahma had me curious. My original opinion of the SS had changed, but damn, that Light Brahma was definitely a cockerel, I'd bet on it. Off-topic, Brahma's are also notoriously hard to sex for the beginner, and a super slow bird when it comes to maturing. So, I made *the decision*. I'd plunk down my $40 lottery winnings and DNA test these 2 so I can finally: breathe easy or find homes for them and finally give them real names. So a bloody toe nail clipping and a couple of days later, I have my answer.
This is a 10 wk old profile pick. The face as darkened, and while I don't have a great pick of the chest, you can see a bit here, it filled in the beautiful brown / black speckled feathers with a smattering of white - much different from the solid white I was seeing weeks ago. Overall this bird has a beautiful shine to the feathers, and the earlier white speckles I was seeing along the back of the body have disappeared for the most part (I know the white will come back as the bird molts and ages), but overall the color is a rich mahogany with black speckling (some posters mentioned the darker birds tended to be males).
For those of you who stuck through this post, I hope you found it useful. My intention is not to say that any other persons observations were wrong, but I just wanted to put it in a perspective of how they applied to my bird. I'm sure there are Sussex people who will look at this and get the sex right from the first picture, which is awesome. I wanted to just compile info that is other there and illustrate it for the first time owners out there. I did see someone posted a pic of their SS a couple of weeks ago and it looked like mine at that age. The few people that replied all said 'roo' and the OP was left with that now he had a bird to get rid of. That made me sad. I didn't know the sex of mine at the time, so I didn't comment, but now knowing the sex puts things in perspective for me. Sometimes I think (and this is a huge generalization for ALL social media) people want to be helpful and want to voice an opinion, but sometime they will go with the crowd even if they don't have the experience to make the call - in this case, determine the sex of a chicken. So take the advice with a grain of salt, and if you really love the bird but the outcome is not what you hoped, either stick it out until your sure, or just get a definitive test done. In my case I said the reasons, and I did have a little $40 windfall
THE RESULTS:............ BOTH PULLETS!!!! The SS (now named Gidget, my surfin' bird) the last several weeks I started to lean to being female. She started to walk with a more level topline all the time as opposed to having a more rooster posture. And then there was the more submissive behavior. And while her comb was bigger and pinker and I was starting to see pink waddles, they never got any redder. So the result was a relief, but not a shock. The Brahma on the other hand was a total shocker, but that's a story for another post. And if anyone is wonder how I did with Rooster Roulette with ordering sexed pullets from MPC, all pullets, all survived, and yes, I'm over my town limit. At least my 2 adjacent neighbors are very happy about the chickens!
