Blue English Orpington, anyone want to take a guess? :)

[manychitlens]

This is Frank. Frank is 3 weeks old today. I'm pretty sure that Frank has about 14 copies of the slow feathering gene, because he is still almost totally fluffy. He is like a monster sized 3 day old chick, lol. I know it is VERY early to be making guesses on an Orpington, but does anyone have personal experience with them and could make a guess? He is my only straight run chick, from a breeder (not hatchery). He is also starting to show a comb, but it is not pink at all. Hopefully these photos are okay, I will get my good camera out and take more photos if necessary.

Sorry if they are blurry. He also doesn't usually stand up quite that tall, lol.

 

[BantamLover21]

Based on the slow feathering, I would guess cockerel.

 

[manychitlens]

Yeah, that's what I'm guessing too at this point. :/ I'm hoping that someone has had a slow featherer that turned out to be female, but I'm not holding my breath! He is very cute, but sadly I can't keep a roo, so I keep hoping.

 

[HighStreetCoop]

Yeah, sorry but I'm also inclined to think Frank will not become Francine.

 

[manychitlens]

Thank you. I will not be surprised one bit if he remains a Frank! Naturally, we all (including my 4 kids) are very attached to him. Sigh.

 

[HighStreetCoop]

Yep. The boys are often the most outgoing chicks so they're the ones you fall in love with. Hopefully we're all wrong and Franny is just a late bloomer.

 

[manychitlens]

I will for sure be hoping, lol! At this rate I won't be able to put him in the coop until they're 6 months old unless Frank decides to grow some feathers. What's funny is that he's not actually all that friendly!! Haha, he is just so adorable. Peeps all the time. He had some very wobbly legs as a newly hatched chick, so I think we got so attached when we were watching him so closely. Plus who couldnt love that fluffy grey tush.

 

[manychitlens]

Just updating with 4 week photos. I thought that while I try to figure out what gender Frank is, I'll try to post weekly updates in case it helps anyone in the future. I know I've been reading as many threads as I can find about sexing english orpingtons. Anyway, these aren't the best photos but I will try to take better ones for next week. These at least show the comb and feathering. Anyway here is Frank at 4 weeks old.

Feathers are finally starting to come in. He looks like a hot mess, lol!

Comb, still not pink at all. I can see wattles, but they are also not pink and are very small. My female chocolate orpington (1 week older than Frank) also has the tiny wattles and they look the same at this point, so it's not a sign of anything yet I don't think.

I'll update again next week! As always any and all input welcome.

 

[manychitlens]

Well, Frank is 5 weeks old now. Updating with photos. The waddles are very suspiciously pink and getting bigger, and the comb is also growing. The comb itself is still not pink.

The below photo is to show feathering and the legs, which are still slender at this point. My other suspected roo has legs like tree trunks (although that bird is a different breed, but still). I'll update again next week but I'm pretry positive at this point that my roo-dar was correct!

 

[HighStreetCoop]

I'm still thinking cockerel.