Cream Leg Bars? male/female or not at all?

[LadiesAndJane]

I just got these hatchery chicks today, 3 days old from Murray McMurray. The 4 chipmunk striped ones in the first photo seem to be obviously female, but the others are throwing me. All 10 are suppose to be female cream leg bars. I know hatchery chicks are not the same quality as private breeders usually, but I still am not sure about these guys. None have obvious white spots on their heads, all seem to have the eyeliner, but the other markings are very unclear. The hatchery says they sent all females as far as they can tell in their records. Thank you so much for any help out there, my chicken friends!

 

[Rhodebar Lover]

Wow! That's quite strange! I hope for your sake they're all pullets. Three or four look like males to me, but that's me comparing them to Rhodebar/Legbar/Bielefelder cockerels

 

[LadiesAndJane]

Thanks for replying, @Rhodebar Lover, I appreciate it
None of the chicks have the white dot on the head that you would expect to see with males.
I know some hatchery stock has lost some of the auto sexing quality and they are vent sexed, so could they be female, just poorer quality?

 

[featheredplanets]

They’re either really poorly coloured pullets or you have up to 6 possible cockerels. It’s not just the head dot that indicates sex but overall lighter colouring. Regardless of what sex they turn out, I personally wouldn’t breed from them. You should start to see differences as they feather in anyway, the males should be black and white barred. Please do keep us updated!

 

[LadiesAndJane]

Thanks @featheredplanets I appreciate your help! I ordered several of these chicks for other people, so I would feel bad giving them boys when they wanted girls. I'll make sure they are aware of the strong possibility for boys and the breeding issues. I believe most people just wanted the blue eggs!

 

[Trisseh]

Oh wow! For your sake I hope they’re just badly coloured pullets as well. females can have a head spot too, So not a definitive sign. but the overall colouring on males is washed out. I’d agree that there looks to be at least 3-4 that I’d be concerned are boys, possibly a couple more. You’ll know when they start feathering anyways...

 

[LadiesAndJane]

Thanks @Trisseh! I appreciate your help. I sent photos into the hatchery to see if I could get a possible refund and will likely just give the questionable ones away and make sure the people who take them know that there’s a good chance they are boys!
At first I suspected they might even be a different breed, but the hatchery insists that they are all cream leg bars!
Has anyone else out there received chicks from Murray McMurray that look like this and ended up being female?

 

[LadiesAndJane]

Just got an email back from the hatchery. They say that they vent sex the cream leg bars and do not go by coloring, as it is not reliable enough. So per the hatchery these are all females!

 

[featheredplanets]

Just got an email back from the hatchery. They say that they vent sex the cream leg bars and do not go by coloring, as it is not reliable enough. So per the hatchery these are all females!

Let’s hope so Keep us updated!!

 

[Trisseh]

Lol, that’s funny. What’s the point of an autosexing breed that you can’t actually autosex? Im sure they’ll be lovely chickens and they’ll be fine just as layers for eating eggs but I sure wouldn’t want to breed them! Fingers crossed they’re right regardless!