Sexing Speckled Sussex....

[grace4261]

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Finally ready to share pictures. All Roo's?

 

[purplechicken7]

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Finally ready to share pictures. All Roo's?

I have a year old hen and her body has a roundness to it and she has a shorter neck. I think all of your babies are boys except for maybe the one on the bottom.

 

[grace4261]

Thank you for your reply. Here is another picture of the one on the bottom. I think that they are all roo's.

I think the one on the right is my only hen.

 

[purplechicken7]

Thank you for your reply. Here is another picture of the one on the bottom. I think that they are all roo's.

I think the one on the right is my only hen.

Roo or not, those are some fine looking birds! I want a roo to breed to my Speckled Sussex hen.

 

[grace4261]

Well if you were close I would say come get him. I've actually only got one left in my coop now.

 

[Dom'sHEns]

HI Grace,

Are the pictures you shared all 5.5 weeks old chicks?

This is my first year with speckled sussex and I ended up with one boy out of the three hatchery "sexed" pullets. One thing I noticed about them is they are very slow to feather out compared to all the other breeds they are currently with...the slowest. My cockerel gave me the he/she guessing game for a long wile...well I was also probably in denial. His comb became larger and pink at 5 weeks and by 6 weeks it was straight up red.

Your specked sussex are much more feathered in than mine are and there going on 9 weeks!, yours also have a longer body type, mine are so round and squatty.

So far my favorite breed though, already stole me at 9 weeks, most inquisitive/ friendly of the bunch but a little more may is say...ditzy? than usual, even for a chicken.

To me all of the pictures you posted look like cockerels IMO. But the crow will tell the story.

Dom

 

[grace4261]

Dom,

Thanks for your input. These have given the the toughest time with sexing. They are just shy of 11 weeks now as seen in the pictures. The cockerels seem to mature at very different rates. Having had 4 I believe are roo's they matured very differently. The one that crowed got out of the pen and disappeared awhile back. I wish I had him for comparison still.

 

[Dom'sHEns]

Grace,

I did notice one of my two pullets has zero tail feathers and chick down for a head still and the other has a short tail and is fully feathered, so big difference there. My cockerel reminds me of a meat bird, sparse feathers very thick wide spaced legs and just very round. It will be interesting to see how he develops over the next few weeks. He will eventually need to be re-homed or move on to the freezer as I cannot keep any roosters, sadly.

I am interested in the egg laying ability of these little ladies, time will tell, but like I said their personality for me is a WIN.

Dom

 

[grace4261]

Dom, From what I've read we may be waiting quite awhile for those eggs.

 

[purplechicken7]

Well if you were close I would say come get him. I've actually only got one left in my coop now.

I'm in Wilkes County, NC. I don't know if you travel to North Carolina any.