Bantams or Bahrma chicks

Feather Finery- Distinguishing a Chicks Sex by Their Coat

There are two ways to sex a day old chick by observing its feathers. Feather sexing is a simple technique that even an amateur backyard chicken keeper can perform. Yay! First, sexing a chick based on when they develop their wing feathers is easily done through simple observation. Early presence of wing feathers almost always indicates that your baby is a clucky little female. If a male from any Mediterranean chicken breed-Leghorns, Minorcas, Anconas, Andalusians, Spanish, or Buttercups- is bred with a female from any American or Asian breed- Plymouth Rocks, Wyandottes, Javas, Black Jersey Giants, Buckeyes, Chanteclers , Dominiques, Rhode Island Reds, Rhode Island Whites, Lamonas, New Hampshires, Brahmas, Langshans, Cochins– or the English Orpington breed, the female offspring will delightfully hatch with very visible and already well- developed wing feathers! Newly hatched cockerels, on the other hand, greet the world with no visible wing feathers or just a snippet! Time is of the essence when identifying sex though, because within a weeks’ time the fine young gentlemen will have finished their game of catch up and be donning some eggs-quisite wing feathers of their own. It’s still the ladies game though, as they will now have sprouted some wee tail feathers as well! Chop chop, boys!

Let’s take another look at feathers for a moment. The sprout patterns on newly hatched chicks’ wing tips can give us a glimpse into the future. While gently, yet securely holding your chick, spread out their little wing tips. Male chicks will eggs-ibit a neat “all one length” feather sprout pattern, while the females wing tips will show an alternating pattern of long and short feather sprouts. Way to go ladies!
 
See you have to breed a fast feathering female breed with a slow feathering male breed. Its not as simple as this article makes it sound though. Not every bloodline of every breed will carry the desired traits. You would have to have bloodlines that have been specifically bred for the traits. To my knowledge no bred carries both traits "fast feathering female & slow feathering male".

So wing sexing will not work for this breed, nor most any other pure breed. It has to be a hybrid cross of two breeds.
 
I agree with @Gray Farms on this one...

Feather sexing is going to be inaccurate when the parentage is unknown... and when it comes to hatchery birds... there is NO rhyme, reason or consistency to how the chicks will grow out when not specifically selected for those traits. :confused:

Either way... write down your assessment so you can see how it turns out later. Not knowing and guessing is half the fun of straight run chicks. :p And testing and growing your skill too of course. ;)

Had the short tail prove unreliable for me the first time this past season. Those had always been male in the past, but not anymore.

If only genetics was a simple as everybody got the good genes spread evenly. :pop
 

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