cream legbars....I think I got it but....

[cafrhe]

I am brand new to CCLs and have been looking at pics and reading. Please let me know if I got this right!
I had 10 hatch. I think I have 5 boys 5 girls. I am confused about seeing dark chipmunk stripes, eyeliner and a head spot! I wouldnt mind being wrong and having more girls lol!

 

[EggSighted4Life]

I am not sure. I find this kind of sexing to be difficult for myself even with the Salmon Faverolles. It seems subjective to me. Making me think twice about choosing an auto sexing breed. Although, like with many other things, probably the more I pay attention the easier it will get.

Your babies are beautiful!

50% is not a bad average... If you are hatching from your own birds, did you know the hen determines the sex? That can be useful when choosing breeders if your able to tell if a hen is throwing both or only one gender.

Good luck!

 

[cafrhe]

I bought hatching eggs...these are my first CCLs. I have hatched Rhodebars from eggs as well and they were way way easier and distinct. If this is how these birds auto sex, I am not sure I will continue with them. Most people in my area cannot have roosters so I was hoping to be able to offer female blue egg layers only to them.

I am sure I will get better after doing more research. Hoping to have a trained eye look at them!

Thanks

 

[EggSighted4Life]

I bought hatching eggs...these are my first CCLs. I have hatched Rhodebars from eggs as well and they were way way easier and distinct. If this is how these birds auto sex, I am not sure I will continue with them. Most people in my area cannot have roosters so I was hoping to be able to offer female blue egg layers only to them.

I am sure I will get better after doing more research. Hoping to have a trained eye look at them!

Thanks

Thanks for sharing your experiences.

I am considering Bielfelders. But I love the blue eggs of the CCL and the birds are pretty. Just not sure if I want the added flightiness, but sill considering it. Also, think they are smaller bodied and I am breeding for meat as well.

Definitely see the value of female chicks in any city location with the added interest of actually getting blue eggs (not maybe)! And CCL are not readily available like EE. So, good job! I hope it goes well for you. Your hatch looks good!

 

[junebuggena]

Autosexing must be carefully selected for. Most hobby breeders don't understand that. If it's not properly maintained in a line, it is very easy to end up producing ambiguous chicks.

 

[BantamFan4Life]

Autosexing must be carefully selected for. Most hobby breeders don't understand that. If it's not properly maintained in a line, it is very easy to end up producing ambiguous chicks.

I agree.

 

[drumstick diva]

agree also

 

[cafrhe]

Thanks for the responses. Can anyone give me some idea of what you see? Is the pic of the single chick a boy or girl. Which ones would you mark for future breeders? If I am going to do this, I'd like to do it right. I was happy with the hatch size, I hope I have a good start. My thinking is always to keep the girls and then get a separate line rooster. But if there is a good rooster, maybe keep him and get different line girls as well.

 

[MeepBeep]

As said a lot of the 'autosexing' is being diluted by hobby breeders that are just spitting out whatever hatches and not culling for traits, this is especially true for CL right now as they are trendy...

Can you get individual top shots that include their back and top of their head? One can take guesses from the picture posted and most can be identified, but individual shots would be easier to reference...

The single chick pictured is female..

As far as what ones to keep for breeding it depends on the traits you seek, if you want clean autosexing you would obviously keep those with strong autosexing features, but if you want to breed color, body shape, upright comb, size of crest or no crest, pattern, egg color or what not you will need to wait until they mature and have their adult feathers and traits visible...

 

[cafrhe]

Thanks Meep...I will get individual pics. I was so sure female on the last pic, but then that little white spot had me confused. I have 2-3 of them like that. That is mainly what threw me.

My goal is probably more towards the stronger auto sexing. My guess is I will be selling pullets to local people who cannot have a rooster. I am npip so cant accept back the roosters, so I would like to be accurate. Nj is opening up many more areas to small chicken keeping, but all areas, other than designated farms, are forbidding roosters.