Brahmas: Light, Dark, or Mix? Also, Polish Question

[ERnoleGuy]

So I took a good assortment of pics of my chicks. I know that two of them are RIR pullets. There are 2 Polish and 2 Brahmas. I tried to make sure to get a whole bunch of different angles & close ups.

http://picasaweb.google.com/skoshler/Chickens?authkey=Gv1sRgCJCfv-LpiJa8Wg&feat=directlink

Are these Light, Dark, or maybe even mixed Brahmas and what gender? The one with more feathers has always been the biggest. I think it's a cockerel. They were all in the same cage at the feed store. The smaller one has been very slow to feather out, so I am assuming it's male too.

The polish ones also look like males to me due to their pointed feather tips. I think they are about 7 weeks old or so. What do you all think?

Note that my guesses are based solely on my BYC research (reading other peoples' posts) and Google, lol.

It'd be just my luck to have 4 roos and only 2 girls. My fault though for being impetuous.

 

[al6517]

The Brahmas are all Light !!!! and some good lookers too. I have the Lights and like them allot, good layers quiet birds a great choice.

AL

 

[Eggs4Sale]

Are you sure you didn't get a roadrunner?

I see a buff polish and a light brahma.

The other brahma, is it the same age? It looks so much younger. It has white feathering on the legs, though, so it's not a dark brahma.

We have a buff polish roo, and his head feathers have never looked like that. I wonder if yours is a pullet. Yours has more feathery head feathers, ours had sickle head feathers. I don't know. Maybe it's a difference between hatcheries.

 

[ERnoleGuy]

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That is if they are pullets. LOL. So far all my bets are on roos. And now people are even saying that one of the RIRs (which I bought as sexed pullets) is a cockerel. OH NO!

 

[al6517]

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That is if they are pullets. LOL. So far all my bets are on roos. And now people are even saying that one of the RIRs (which I bought as sexed pullets) is a cockerel. OH NO!

WOW !!!!! now thats some bad luck, maybe you will get lucky.

AL

 

[Eggs4Sale]

The small RIR does look like a roo, but don't start getting rid of them yet. It's too early to tell for most of them. Unless you want to check the old fashioned way. You probably have more guts than I do, so you could do it with more success.

 

[Eggs4Sale]

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When did your light brahmas start to lay? I have one coming onto 5 months and she doesn't seem to be even entertaining the idea.

 

[ERnoleGuy]

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Well I do work in the medical field so... However I have no idea what "the old fashion way" entails. lol

 

[Eggs4Sale]

I've read it in Storey's, but I think they were talking about ducks. It must be the same, though. You put them on your lap, turn them upside down so you can see where their, um, parts are, and you have to do a little massaging or stroking around that area, which isn't what it sounds like. I saw a YouTube video of a lady scientist doing it to a full grown rooster, and she basically petted it along the underside. Okay, I'm getting nowhere here. Let me look around a bit!

 

[Eggs4Sale]

Okay, there are at least 15 different patterns to know, so I guess I'd fail at it. But a bump is a boy.