At what age can you tell sex in BA, RIR and BR?

[lindsmurphy]

Hi!

I am looking for some help sexing my chicks.. they are currently 2 weeks and I'd love to know at what age you experts are able to tell the difference. (Black Australorp, Buff Roc, Rhode Island Red). I have a feeling about some of them in the way they behave, some are asserting dominance, and one in particular just acts like a little dweeb, and I suspect he's going to be a roo. Anyways, if you can tell at this age, I would be more than willing to post photos of them to see what you guys think!

 

[debid]

Sometimes the cockerels show their gender that early but usually you have to wait for the comb to redden and grow "too soon to be a pullet", hear early crowing efforts, or see the start of the rooster feathers (3-5 months). Of course, it's never too early to guess as long as you understand that it is a guess.

 

[lindsmurphy]

Ok, I think I'll wait another couple weeks and then post some photos to see what everyone thinks.. thanks for the info!

 

[lazy gardener]

Hi!

I am looking for some help sexing my chicks.. they are currently 2 weeks and I'd love to know at what age you experts are able to tell the difference. (Black Australorp, Buff Roc, Rhode Island Red). I have a feeling about some of them in the way they behave, some are asserting dominance, and one in particular just acts like a little dweeb, and I suspect he's going to be a roo. Anyways, if you can tell at this age, I would be more than willing to post photos of them to see what you guys think!

RIR are easily feather sexed, but it has to be done before day 3. You can google feather sexing for a list of birds that can be feather sexed. Too late now, but if you can remember what their wings looked like at 3 days... Keep an eye out in the future for (rooster) combs that are larger and "beefier" than the others. rooster legs are also reported to be thicker.

 

[fiddlebanshee]

If the barred rocks have a very concentrated white spot on their heads they're girls, if the spot is more all over, fuzzy, they're boys.

I second to look at their legs. That's how I could tell that one of my ameraucana was a boy. He was not dominant until much, much later, actually he was the one that was most scared of everything, including me. He only started crowing well after 6 months.

At about 4 / 5 months you'll see hackle and saddle feathers come in - sure tell tale signs of boys being boys.

I learned a lot about what to look for by reading the gender/breed forum here at BYC. Just reading what experts say and their explanation for how they reached their conclusions was much enlightening.

 

[Debs55]

The spot on the head is not always the best indicator. I usually wait till try get feathers in then the boys in barred rocks are very obvious because they have more white and their stripes are very defined. The girls are more black and their stripes are more muddy

 

[debid]

The OP has black Australorps. They don't have barring. (Nor do buff Rocks or Rhode Islands).

 

[Debs55]

It says black australorps, Rhode Island reds and barred rocks in the question title.....

 

[Fred's Hens]

These are all single combed breeds. Usually, at 7 weeks, the pink/red combs and little red wattles will sprout on the cockerels. This is quite common across breed lines. Once you've raised out a few hundred or a few thousand chicks, the breed isn't nearly as important as this single comb phenomena.

Here's some mutts, some Barred Rocks and RIR at 7 weeks, approximately, and telling the cockerels from the pullets is pretty darn easy, just from the combs and wattles. There are other features as well, (short tails-long tails, legs, etc) but when you add them up, 7 weeks is the time to sex with great, great accuracy. Once your eye is trained to see the differences in males and females, it gets a bit easier.



A cockerel and a pullet



RIR Pullets


RIR cockerels



A BR cockerel and three pullets

 

[debid]

It says black australorps, Rhode Island reds and barred rocks in the question title.....

BR = "buff Roc" in the description, although the poster probably meant buff Orpingtons. And yeah, they are still single-combed so usually will make themselves obvious soon as Fred pointed out.