Black orp at 4 weeks (updated with pics)

[galanie]

Got my main answer but bumping this since I have pictures now, just for grins. Boys are supposed to be much slower at getting tail feathers, right?

I have some black orps I hatched from eggs I bought from a very reputable breeder. One is huge. While a few still don't have their tail feathers in completely, this monster has the biggest tail and almost all the back feathers, though neck ones are just coming in. Its comb is much bigger than any others but it's still yellowish anyway. It does the chest butting thing and definitely wants to dominate all. Maybe just because of it's size? The silly thing even tries (somewhat) to challenge my top hen, who is very sweet and understanding but does peck the silly thing when it goes too far. No, they don't run together but she gets to come into the pen with them when I'm in there for a while some days.

I tried the wing feather sexing when they were 2 days old and my first guess was 3 roos, 2 hens. So far it's looking like 3 roos and 2 hens but I didnt' mark them at first so no way to prove who was who.

These pics probably illustrate why you can't tell the sex at 4 weeks lol. I only have pics of 3 of them here.

First three are same chick, the big one:

Here is chick 2. Almost no comb, but almost no tail yet either:

and chick 3. Huge comb but still yellow, and no tail:

 

[jimmythechicken]

we do alot of orps as well i would say she is a hen i have found that with ours the more aggasive chicks seem to be pullets an you are right the hens will feather out much eirlier i dont go on size much.i once gave tony on here a great orp breeder a black roo like 5-6 weeks we both agreed it was a black roo then about 5 weeks later he emailed me an said that black roo turned out to be a blue orp hen hahaha sometimes it is hard to tell.

 

[galanie]

Oh thank you! I thought I was crazy. Ok, well, I am, but I mean .... you know. I told myself that this HAS to be a hen.. but why is it acting like a roo? Figured orps might do something different that I didn't know about. It's not like I'm any sort of expert on them lol only having had chickens for a bit over a year.

So now I'm back to thinking I *probably* have 3 roos and 2 hens. Much better though 4 hens and 1 roo would be super

 

[galanie]

Just sort of bumping this from page 5 for opinions since it has pictures now.

 

[Happy Chooks]

Orps can be tricky. I hatched some last year, and I had 1 obvious cockeral and 3 obvious pullets. Then these "in between" 2 that I couldn't figure out for the longest time. At 8 weeks, I was positive they were both girls.

My guess at this point would be the first 2 are pullets and the 3rd is a cockeral.

Here is an 8 week old pullet:

And an 8 week old cockeral:

 

[jimmythechicken]

i dont know our roos usually have bigger reder combs then that at that size but feathering does look rooish his legs look pretty thick i would give it a few more weeks i hate when you get birds like that i am hoping for hen for you

 

[galanie]

Quote:
Thank you! I need all the help I can get

The only one that does not have huge legs and feet is the 'runt' and the only one I'm sure is a pullet. I dont' have her pic here. They sure are confusing!

 

[JulieNKC]

My girl orps were bigger than my boy. They also got their tails in first. His took almost a month and a half to get the slightest bit of tail, so I'd say yours is a pullet. I couldn't go by their combs, they all looked similar. His wattles came in before theirs though, and was red while theirs were pink.