Bigger than the rest!

[Chick_Chick]

I ordered 25 chicks from Hoover's Hatchery. Among the different varieties I bought were an assortment of five Marans. Of those, it looks like I ended up with 2 French Wheaten Marans. One of them has been bold from the start, always rushing to inspect or peck at a hand placed in the brooder. This chick at 2 weeks started getting larger than the others. Here it is next to the other French Wheaten Maran. They are about 3.5 weeks old here...do you think its a cockerel or just bigger. It's the biggest fluffiest chick I have. View attachment 2582833View attachment 2582836View attachment 2582837

 

[JaeG]

With the wheaten colouring you should be able to tell by the chest feathers. Black on the chest indicates a cockerel whereas the girls stay the sandy wheaten colour. The wheaten coloured cockerels end up looking like partridge coloured boys do. Yours do both look like girls at the moment but it was at 4 weeks old that my Wheaten English Araucana cockerel started to get black in his chest feathers. I'm not sure what's happening with the size difference but it could just be down to genetics.

Some pullets are bold. We had two chicks that ended up being a boy and a girl. The boy was super timid but the pullet would leap out of the brooder (or attempt to until she was big enough) as soon as it was opened.

 

[Chick_Chick]

With the wheaten colouring you should be able to tell by the chest feathers. Black on the chest indicates a cockerel whereas the girls stay the sandy wheaten colour. The wheaten coloured cockerels end up looking like partridge coloured boys do. Yours do both look like girls at the moment but it was at 4 weeks old that my Wheaten English Araucana cockerel started to get black in his chest feathers. I'm not sure what's happening with the size difference but it could just be down to genetics.

Some pullets are bold. We had two chicks that ended up being a boy and a girl. The boy was super timid but the pullet would leap out of the brooder (or attempt to until she was big enough) as soon as it was opened.

I'll keep an eye on the chest feathers. Thanks!