Black Lace Wyan-what??

[Ladyanne57]

3 weeks ago we started our flock with six one-day-old BL Wyandotte chicks. They marched out of the box, immediately sized up and took charge of the brooder setup and have done really well so far. Nice and clean, no pasty butts, great appetites, growing like weeds, getting very tame, etc. The last ten days or so they have been occupied with setting up the pecking order, so most of their time of course they are eating, pooping or trying to kill each other (I exaggerate but only slightly...). Today they moved to the real coop (halleluia!). So far so good. The only question I have is...most of them have a pretty good set of lovely copper and black feathers by now (bottom picture) ...except this one (top picture, chick on the right) . She just barely has anything other than fluff and wing primaries. You can see the bald spots on her "elbows". There do not appear to be any skin diseases, injuries



or parasites. This one is the biggest of the bunch and is one of the more dominant. So what's up here? Do I (*gasp*) have a potential roo?? Your eggspert thoughts, please! (And NOW I can truly appreciate all the lovely pics you folks post. It's hard to get a decent pic of chicks!).
Thanks for the help.

 

[forgetful]

It may indeed be a cockerel, though a better headshot would be helpful. I have some three week old silver laced wyandottes that I am just beginning to notice gender on.

 

[Ladyanne57]

OK - will try to get a head shot sometime today, but if I can't get this mystery beast to pose properly, what might I be looking for? Do cockerels get their combs earlier? (not much sign of that yet). I don't mind keeping a rooster if he behaves himself. My neighbor finally got one and said he hasn't lost any chickens to hawks since the roo came on the job. And hawks, we got hawks. Most everything around here is a pet anyway. We shall see.

 

[forgetful]

Mine at least have. They were two weeks old when I noticed slightly larger combs, and the beginning of redness. They now have more pronounced wattles and definite redness. Feather development is about equal to the pullets. Sometimes, regardless of gender, there are individuals that feather more slowly.

 

[azygous]

Yep! Cockerel! The "lace" feather pattern emerges much sooner on the little boys in the Wyandotte breeds.

 

[Ladyanne57]

OK now I'm REALLY confused so I'll give you some background. My neighbors and I went together and bought a dozen day old BLW's from Mt. Healthy Hatchery. They arrived here April 8th, so they are about 3 weeks and some change old now. I took six, they took six. They were supposed to be all pullets (last year they got a dozen BLW's from the same source, and one the hatchery wasn't sure about the sex so they threw in a thirteenth chick. To me, that says they're pretty honest and hopefully pretty good at sexing chicks...). I stopped by the other day at the neighbors to compare notes (they have had chickens for several years now) and look at their six. Everybody is pretty much even with respect to feathering out (i.e. they all look pretty much like the one in the BOTTOM photo) EXCEPT the one I have in the TOP photo I posted above (it's a little confusing but that's how they came out when I posted them...). So either between us we have eleven cockerels and I have the one pullet (again, top pic!), or we've got eleven pullets and one wierdo. Does that clarify things a bit?

Thanks again. I can't say enough good things about BYC - it's so handy to be able to go and read up on stuff, laugh a little, learn a lot. Keep up the good work!

 

[newmarch2014]

OK, so Roos usually mature a bit later in feathering, boy traits start slowly showing up like redder larger combs etc many times (sometimes you don't know till the crow). The kind you have though do have the tell tale markings show up quick in the roos. Who knows if your friends chicks are a day or so ahead of yours, at this age that day makes a difference in maturing, you can literally almost see their feathers grow if you sit and watch them long enough (slight exaggeration here too). Temp has a lot to do with how fast they feather also so that may be a factor.

 

[forgetful]

I haven't seen a lace pattern show up on my cockerels sooner than my pullets. Without seeing the closeup, you either have a slow feathering pullet, or a young cockerel. It's nice that they were honest about the chicks. Sometimes vent sexing isn't accurate, and they get blamed for a not perfect process.

 

[Ladyanne57]

More and better photos- still trying to figure out the identity of the Velociraptor. Here's what most of the gang look like (including the ones my neighbors got out of the same bunch):(the one in question has its butt to the camera just to the right of the center of the group.
Now here's what the Velociraptor looks like. So we are still trying to figure out - cockerel? Or (cue the dramatic music...) something else??

 

[Rowsdower]

I'd be pretty suspicious of that one, myself, but he/she could still surprise you.