Choosing Blue-Laced Red Wyandottes

[Alicia]

I am so excited!!

In a day or two I am going to purchase a couple blue laced red Wyandottes from a local farm. They are being sold straight-run, but the seller is allowing me to choose from the birds available. The chickens I am choosing from are about 4 weeks old. I have two questions about choosing:

#1: I would prefer a couple of hens. At 4 weeks of age, which physical attributes should I look for to help assure that I will be choosing hens rather than roosters? I have heard that if they are all the same age, the smaller birds with the thinner legs are more likely to be hens. I have also heard that at 4-5 weeks of age, birds with any pink at all in their combs are roosters.

What is your opinion? Do you have any tips for me to help me choose hens over roosters?

#2: I just learned that the blue laced red Wyandottes come in three variations; blue, black and splash. If I would prefer the blue variation, over the black or splash, which physical attributes/coloring should I look for in a bird of 4 weeks of age?

Thanks for your help!

 

[georgialee]

Well, I personally think that wyandottes are very hard to sex that young. Mine all looked the same until around 2 months when 3 of their combs started turning pink and one stayed flesh colored. Splash chicks have lighter down, black and blue will probably look very similar. If you can see down in the adult feathers that have already grown it may give you an indication of the final color of the birds.

The hard thing is that they don't stay anything like what they look like at around 4 weeks. Their feathers won't look laced and the red color won't be as dark as the final.

Good luck! You'll have to post pics once you get them!

 

[Alicia]

Thanks for your response!

Do you think there is any credence to the smaller birds with skinnier legs being more likely to be hens?

Will I be looking for darker or lighter down with the darker feathers to hopefully choose a blue variation?

Thanks so much for your advice! It is really appreciated!

 

[ColbyNTX]

You should be able to tell blue from black at a month old. I have 20 BLRW, 6 SLW's and 6 GLW's and I have trouble sexing them at 8 weeks! I think the skinner legs won't really help either. They are just like any animal that grow at different rates due to genetics and if they are a piggie at the feeder. I have had some that i would bet the farm that would be a roo and turned out a hen. Good luck with your birds. Wyandottes are great, gental birds and great eggers.

 

[Alicia]

Thanks for the response!

*sigh*

It looks like I'm just going to have to get 4 of them and figure out what to do with the roosters when I figure out which ones are roosters.

Watch, they'll all be hens and eggs will be on the menu every morning, noon and night! LOL! (we have a family of 5 and already have 5, 8-week-old hens!)

Any suggestions about what to do with BLRW roosters? I just can't bring myself to have them for dinner or give them to someone else who will have them for dinner. My chickies are my babies.

If anyone else has any insight to share, I'm open to it all!