do hens or roos feather first?

[PurplePoppiPpl]

i recently got 2 blue laced red Wyandotte chicks i think are now about 2 weeks old. i thought they were the same age but i now see that one is significantly larger. The larger chick also has much more feathering the other chick only has started feathering around it's wings. does this mean the smaller chick is probably a hen?

 

[chooks4life]

i recently got 2 blue laced red Wyandotte chicks i think are now about 2 weeks old. i thought they were the same age but i now see that one is significantly larger. The larger chick also has much more feathering the other chick only has started feathering around it's wings. does this mean the smaller chick is probably a hen?

Any size differences between chicks of the same clutch and parents are due to genetics, not gender, up until the pullets are already laying and at their adult height, when the boys begin to get bigger because they keep growing, as a general rule of thumb. In my experience both genders keep growing at a slower rate after their first year, up for at least another year. I used to think two years to full adult size but some of my hens are still going, lol, they're all over two years old.

All things being equal you still get runts, so that might be what's happening.

Another general rule of thumb is that males feather slower, it applies to many breeds and also many mongrels/mutts. I don't know of any breed where they feather faster than females. There's a good chance your smaller chick is male.

Some also have growth disorders so time will tell if that's what it is... But any setback, whether a chill or temporary illness or injury or stress, can set a chick back so its resources go from growing into recovering, which can put them behind their clutchmates developmentally.

Best wishes.

 

[rc4u]

most always the hens get longer tail and wing feathers and roos short tail and wing feathers and this starts to notice at two to 4 weeks and up to 8 weeks......combs watlles and feet size make no difference at young weeks...jeff

 

[chooks4life]

While what Jeff said is generally true, how you raise them, what their genetics and diet are and so forth have a massive impact, I could sex some chooks even before they had hatched properly by crest development etc and there was often an easily sexed ratio from chicks under a week old due to precocious development. Sometimes you can tell, but probably with the majority, you can't, you need specialist sexing techniques like vent-sexing, breed-specific (i.e. feather growth or sex-linked colors or unique sex-linked traits) or similar.

Best wishes.

 

[ShockValue]

I don't know if this will help, but this young BLRW turned out to be a boy. We never intended in having a boy in the flock, but at about 22 weeks of age, he's really being good. Not aggressive (although I do get dirty looks when I'm messing with his girls), and doesn't crow TOO much.

The give-away for us was how quickly his wattles grew and turned red.

 

[PurplePoppiPpl]

I don't know if this will help, but this young BLRW turned out to be a boy. We never intended in having a boy in the flock, but at about 22 weeks of age, he's really being good. Not aggressive (although I do get dirty looks when I'm messing with his girls), and doesn't crow TOO much.

The give-away for us was how quickly his wattles grew and turned red.

the reason im worried is how one of them has more feathering than the chick in these pictures, and the other one only has a little wing feathers. also the more feathered one is a little bigger with thicker looking legs and head,

 

[Aronia]

roos

 

[Horse Life]

Also I will say that sometimes you can also tell by looking at the legs...one of them will tend to have darker legs, while the other will have lighter...also I have also read that pullets tend to feather faster. I actually have 3 golden laced Wyandotte "pullets" but only one is really getting her wing feathers in.

 

[Horse Life]

Also we have to Columbian something...both pullets and one is growing its tail already the other has nothing?

 

[Ridgerunner]

The speed feathers develop is due to genetics. There are fast feathering genes and slow feathering genes. If the parents are set up so the father has the recessive fast feathering genes and the mother has the dominant slow feathering genes the boys will feather out slower than the pullets because only the boys get their mother's dominant slow feathering gene. This is how you get sex-linked feather sexing. If the parents are not set up properly genetically you can get anything.

Where the feathers come in and such are controlled by other genetics but I'm not aware of anything sex-linked about those genetics. Unless I know the parents are set up properly genetically I don't pay any attention to feather development early when trying to sex them.

How big they are at hatch and shortly afterwards depends a lot on how big the egg was that they hatched out of. The boys tend to grow faster than the girls but they get such a jumbled start due to egg size and such I don't pay a lot of attention to that until at least 5 weeks and usually that is way too young for size to matter.

I agree with Chooks4life. On rare occasions you can tell sex at hatch or very shortly after. The boys tend to stand up taller and can have a certain body conformation. The boys tend to be more aggressive and bold. It is usually easier to say that one is definitely a boy than that one is a girl but I have had a very few of those girls too.

Usually by five weeks I can tell the boys from the girls with most of my chickens. Single combed chickens are easier than rose or pea combed chickens. Thick feathered breeds like Orpington or Cochin can be more challenging. Combs and wattles are often of great value. Boys often have heavier legs as well as stand tall and have a certain body conformation. I remember one specific chick that I thought was a girl until he turned 15 weeks, then his male characteristics final came through. There is some science in sexing them but there is some art too. Practice helps.

i recently got 2 blue laced red Wyandotte chicks i think are now about 2 weeks old. i thought they were the same age but i now see that one is significantly larger. The larger chick also has much more feathering the other chick only has started feathering around it's wings. does this mean the smaller chick is probably a hen?

At two weeks it is probably too early to be sure. If you can post photos when they hit five weeks we have a pretty good chance at getting it right. I like a close-up of the head showing the comb and wattles and a shot showing the legs, posture, and conformation.