Yep it's suppose to help with determining the sex. It looks like a Buff Brahma to me. Brahmas are brown egg layers. By the looks of it, I believe it's a rooster. There are sickle feathers (rooster only), the hackle feathers are thin and long, and the saddle feathers are the long and thin as well. Those are three other ways to sex chickens. The fully feathered chickens you may use those three methods along with wing sexing. Wing sexing works well in younger chicks. I will try and get you pictures to show you the wing sexing method. As for the feather structure here's a picture of my Black Australorp cockerel that is 4 months old and my Black Australorp pullets that are 6 months old. See the differences between the feathers near the tail and the neck feathers. That's mainly what I'm talking about.
Birdrain92 -
I would love to do the wing span thing - but I have no one to help me take pics while holding the chicken at the same time. I'm assuming that's to help figure out if male or female?? I got my first green egg today - I have only the one OEE, and then I have (3) Americaunas. I'm hoping it was the OEE that laid it - as that mystery would now be over. If Americaunas can lay olive colored eggs - then I'm still not sure on the OEE and one Americauna. The other (2) Americaunas I bought a week or two ago - and they are laying two year olds (of course technically haven't laid for me yet - unless the green egg was one of theirs) - I do expect some eggs from them soon, as they are almost adjusted to their new home.
The age range of my roosters are 6 months to 1 year. It seems like they keep each other in check when it comes to the hens (who range in age from 7 months to 2 years). None of the hens show any signs of overbreeding or abuse. The boys seem to police each other, which seems to help out the girls. I don't know if that will change or not - but everyday I check everyone out. I only have the one silky rooster that seems to want to dominant a younger, very submissive silky roo (although I'm not convinced he is a he, but he was sold to me as a roo). As soon as I have my new coop built, he will be in there on his own - and then when the four little Marans are ready, they will join him.
I have attached a pic of what I believe is a Brahma - this was bought as a brown laying hen. However I believe this chicken is actually a well-bred freeloader. No crowing and no eggs. No dominant behavior, except to let any neebies know that he/she is higher on the totum pole - but other than that - this freeloader doesn't cause any problems. I saw one just like this on Craigslist - and it was being sold as a roo. I bought my "girl" in June, and she was around 6 months old at that time.
I will post more pics on the "what breed/gender is this" soon.
