Collecting Pictures of 2 week old peachicks, Come post yours!

[Kedreeva]

Ok, here is the deal. I am trying to determine something about the saddle feathers (the feathers basically on the 'shoulder' area that grow in when the first wing feathers are growing in, kind of where you'd put a saddle on a horse) of 2 week old peachicks. As I am not probably going to be hatching any of my own this year, I would love you forever if you would post pictures of the saddle feathers of your 2 week old chicks here for me- the ones you are going to follow so that you know which gender they turn out to be. The second part is VERY important to what I am trying to find out because I'm fairly certain there's a small pattern difference in a small window at that age on those feathers that can tell which gender the bird is.

So basically what I need are pictures of your 2 week old peachick's back, and then please follow up when you know what gender the bird pictured turns out to be. Please don't guess which bird is which, I'd rather have no help than a wrong answer that I think is right.

Here is an example picture of exactly what I need to see:

This is my female at 2 weeks of age. The picture I got of her feathers are slightly better than the picture of my male's, but here is his picture as well.

In these two you can clearly see a difference in the feathers.

I followed the thread of a lady who hatched a single peachick late in the season, and she sent me pictures of her chick at 2 weeks. The saddle feathers were identical to my female's pattern at that age, and her bird turned out to be female as well. I'd like to find it this holds true for others, and if it is something that perhaps we can all use to help determine the gender of our peafowl a lot sooner.

 

[jenlynn4]

this is very interresting...I'd be really currious to see how it turns out

 

[Kedreeva]

I've got my fingers crossed that I am right. It would be nice, eh!

 

[Kedreeva]

Seeing as people are getting their first chicks of the year, I'm bumping this up in hopes of finding some pics!

 

[SuperPeacockman]

When my eggs start hatching I will post images, I hope you are right to

 

[Kedreeva]

still looking!

 

[racuda]

These are 15 days old:

 

[Kedreeva]

Thank you! Do you have them banded or something so you can tell which ones turn out which gender? In order to determine if I'm correct, that is the information I will need next

 

[racuda]

According to your theory, does it look like 2 females, and 3 males? Are the 2 females on the left and in the back? I could zip tie the suspected females.

 

[Kedreeva]

Honestly from the picture, if you compare it to the pic of my girl's back (and the other girl I have confirmed pictures/later gender on), it looks like a box full of girls from this angle. The one to the far right (middle) looks the closest to male, but even then it's got the white tips on the saddle feathers. Do they look different close up to you in real life (photos are sometimes hard to tell).

This is why I was hoping to get a bunch of pictures and follow ups, because if my boy's different patterned feathers were just an anomaly I'd like to know. I have some other photos someone PMed to me, but again they all have the same patterns as my girl's... and I'm beginning to think it's impossible both of you have all girls!