can you tell if its a roster by body shape?

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I have one chick that's only a couple of days old, its a lot fatter and the head is noticeably rounder (its also a lot fluffier). could this mean its a roster?

 

[SteveBaz]

There are signs of roosters but body size it not the only factor that dictates whether its a roo or hen unless

 

[chkinut]

i have read, and also in my experience i've found this to be true....that the hens feather out more quickly....they will get longer wing feathers and their tail feathers come in faster than the lil roos. the roo babies i've seen (and i'm sure this isn't ALWAYS the case) have stubby wing feathers and their tail feathers are either non existent yet, or very small.

 

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I nick named my older roster stubby because he had no tail feathers when he was learning to crow and stuff... guess ill just have to wait till my chicks get older hope its genetic (hes the dad of my 5 baby chicks). worried about having too many rosters.

i have read, and also in my experience i've found this to be true....that the hens feather out more quickly....they will get longer wing feathers and their tail feathers come in faster than the lil roos. the roo babies i've seen (and i'm sure this isn't ALWAYS the case) have stubby wing feathers and their tail feathers are either non existent yet, or very small.

 

[azygous]

Go get the little guy and look at his wing feather buds. If they're short and all even, resembling toothpicks, chances are it's a boy.

Take each of the others and examine their wings. The girls may have longer wing feather buds with emerging feather tufts, and they will appear staggered, or uneven. This is only true for some hatchery breeds. If your rooster and the hen came from a breeding farm, this little method will probably prove useless.

I do sympathize with you. It's always such a throw of the dice over whether or not you end up with girls or boys. Generally, you can expect half will be boys - just like tossing dice.

 

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what age should they be for this? i hatched mine Thursday and Friday, they all seem to have feathers. would different breeds grow feathers at different rates? i have 5 chicks 3 are purebred green layers, one is a black star mix, and my other one i got no clue (either gold laced wandolt, road island red or red star mix)

Go get the little guy and look at his wing feather buds. If they're short and all even, resembling toothpicks, chances are it's a boy.

Take each of the others and examine their wings. The girls may have longer wing feather buds with emerging feather tufts, and they will appear staggered, or uneven. This is only true for some hatchery breeds. If your rooster and the hen came from a breeding farm, this little method will probably prove useless.

I do sympathize with you. It's always such a throw of the dice over whether or not you end up with girls or boys. Generally, you can expect half will be boys - just like tossing dice.

 

[[email protected]]

not sure where they came from just know I got them from a local feed store 5 years ago. we thought our current roster was a hen until he started crowing.

Go get the little guy and look at his wing feather buds. If they're short and all even, resembling toothpicks, chances are it's a boy.

Take each of the others and examine their wings. The girls may have longer wing feather buds with emerging feather tufts, and they will appear staggered, or uneven. This is only true for some hatchery breeds. If your rooster and the hen came from a breeding farm, this little method will probably prove useless.

I do sympathize with you. It's always such a throw of the dice over whether or not you end up with girls or boys. Generally, you can expect half will be boys - just like tossing dice.

 

[chkinut]

i can usually tell males from females at around 10 - 14 days old just by the feathering out. it's not totally 100%, but it's pretty close (from my experience anyway).

 

[CochinBrahmaLover]

There are signs of roosters but body size it not the only factor that dictates whether its a roo or hen unless

how do you get to do those posts??!?!?!??!?!