Breed or Gender?

[chickschool]

I am constantly amazed at how confident and accurate so many of you are at identifying a chickens gender and or breed. I would think that breed could be a bit more tricky but can anyone share with me the basic tell tale sighs as to whether or not it's male or female?

 

[smokeykk]

Well, some people just have experience with that breed and they know things about certain breeds, like I have experience with Silkies, Production Red, and new hampshire.

So, here's the basic signs. The tail feathers will have a greenish sheen, and the wattles and comb will be bigger and redder. With certain breeds, like silkies, if the crest is slicked back rather than poofy then its probably male, some are sexlinked, the males will also have bigger legs, and with crested, like polish the crest will be wilder and bigger. xD that was a mouthful

 

[chickschool]

I started with 8 silkies and to be honest until 6

of them began to crow I didn't have a clue. So this spring I added an americana and when it's comb suddenly got big and red I thought for sure I had another rooster but when I posted a picture everyone immediately said it was a hen and the reason her comb looked like that was because she was healthy and getting ready to lay. It's all so confusing!

I think I might look for a class.

 

[smokeykk]

well it depends on their age, if they are at least 16 weeks and their comb and wattles get huge and red then they probably will be laying soon, and well after I had silkies and got their genders right now I can make an educated guess since I had them, so, At the beginning I had some pretty suckish questions

 

[chickschool]

Silly me. Did I refer to my 5 month old chicken as a Hen? I meant pullet.

Clearly I need that class!