5 week old Buff Orpington chicks

[Melanite]

Hello, Backyard Chicken keepers! My husband and I set 16 Buff Orpington eggs in February, and we had 13 beautiful chicks hatch for us in March.

Of these, I only have the space to keep a small flock of three hens. (The rest are going to be migrating to my mother-in-law and her sister, who have both kept poultry off and on for many years for both eggs and meat.)

We’ve narrowed down our options to four individuals who we believe are pullets, but I want to run a few pictures past you guys before we make any final decisions.

The chicks are two days shy of five weeks old. I know this is a bit young to know for sure, but my mother-in-law is really chomping at the bit, and was hoping that we could drop them off this weekend.

Chick 1. “Snugglebug” Our smallest chick, she loves being held.

Chick 2. “Percher” She must sit higher than everyone else, even if that means trying to sit on my head.

Chick 3. “Champion” One of our largest chicks, even larger than some of the cockerels. Though her comb is small, her size makes me concerned about whether she could be a late blooming rooster.

Chick 4. “Lucky” Our second smallest chick. She hatched out of a cracked egg that was repaired with wax, and was the first to hatch.

 

[OneToManyChickens]

The four you have right now all look like hens. Roosters at this age will have a more red tinted comb then the yellowish comb on a hen. While late blooming roosters do exist, so do chunky hens. To me they all look female but go with your gut, if your worried don’t keep her. You can always trade with your mother-in-law later down the line if someone pulls a fast one on ya. From my stand point, I can see 4 beautiful pullets.

 

[NatJ]

I see a tiny bit of red wattle on Champion, but not on Lucky. You might want to have a good look at everyone's wattles--sometimes it's easier to see the red there than on the combs. (Even hens will eventually get red wattles eventually, but males do get them sooner-- comparing among all the ones in the batch will sometimes make the genders obvious at that age.)