6 weeks old "araucana" chicks, gender and what the heck is the first one?

[Altairsky]

Here are a few pics of my 6 weeks old chicks I got from blue araucana eggs.
1- cockerel, what color do you think he will be? Not sure what's going on, genetically, since he has a standard comb and feathered legs.
2- cockerel, rumpless white
3- pullet, rumpless white
4- pullet, golden duckwing araucana with tail

What do you think?
Don't mind the black spot on their nose, I forgot to fix a hardware cloth hazard in a corner of their outdoor playground and they obviously went all right there on day 1.

 

[JedJackson]

#1, as a guess, looks like it might've had salmon Faverolles blood introduced some time in the past. Maybe through a favacauna. I'm not sure it's a male. Looks like it could go either way to me.

#2 seems a surer bet for a cockerel, since it has quite a bit of color to the comb.

3 and 4 do look like pullets. 4 definitely is one because of female specific coloring.

It looks like all of them have beards and muffs, which is not a trait of purebred Araucanas. They have those ear tufts which are quite different in appearance. So I think all of these are Araucanas mixed with Easter eggers or Ameraucanas.

 

[fluffycrow]

I agree with Jed's gender guesses; they are not pure. EU Araucanas can be both bearded and not, so that's not why, but the fact that one has a single comb and feathered legs, while another has a tail, means that they have something else in them

 

[Altairsky]

Looks like it could go either way to me.

I really hope he's gonna be a girl because I really love the color and I already decided for a legbar roo. But the bright red in the wattle area is a bad omen.

 

[JedJackson]

I really hope he's gonna be a girl because I really love the color and I already decided for a legbar roo. But the bright red in the wattle area is a bad omen.

It's a close call. That color pattern is generally associated with females, but when we're dealing with mixed breeds that's not always reliable. The comb isn't that big, though. So I would wait and see with that one.

 

[Altairsky]

is there an article about male and female color patterns? I'd like to learn more about this subject!

 

[JedJackson]

is there an article about male and female color patterns? I'd like to learn more about this subject!

I haven't been able to find one. I can tell you the varieties that have separate color patterns for males and females.

Black breasted red, blue breasted red (game chickens)
Light or Dark brown, blue light brown (Leghorns, dutch bantams)
Silver duckwing, blue silver duckwing (game bantams)
Silver grey (Dorkings)
Silver (Leghorns, Dutch bantams)
Gold duckwing, Golden Duckwing, Golden, blue gold duckwing (game chickens, Phoenix)
Wheaten, blue wheaten (game chickens, Ameraucanas)
Silver wheaten (Salmon Faverolles)
Partridge, blue partridge (Cochins, Plymouth rocks)
Silver pencilled (Plymouth rocks, dark Brahmas)

The difference is that males will always have black or blue breasts, and you can see it when they start feathering in. Females will not ever have solid black or blue feathers on the breast.

Crele (game bantams, Bielefelders) is similar to black breasted red, but with the barring gene added. It's a little more difficult to tell gender at an early age with these.

Purebred barred or cuckoo chickens are also distinguishable by coloring. Males will have bigger white bars, and their overall color is lighter. Females will have less white and be darker overall in appearance.

I'm sure there are others I can't think of right now.

 

[Altairsky]

Update on the white boy #2
he's 9+ weeks old now and his comb is still quite small. is there hope that he's a female? Same color/breed pullet (#3) on the arrow behind