Do I have 7 hens and 1 roo or the other way around?!

[kaciebeckk]

I have roughly 8 four week old ISA Browns. One of them has hardly any tail feathers and the other 7 have just sprouted greatly! Wing length is different as well. The 1 in question is brown on back and no white stripe on both sides of its back. The other 7 are the brown with white stripes. And long tail feathers. I’ll attach pictures. I’m curious if I have 7 Roos or 7 hens or what?!

 

[citymeetscountry]

Oh gosh I was like what do you mean it doesn’t have tail feathers, those are long! Then I realized I was looking at bedding and maybe I need to get my eyes checked

Without any other info (seeing combs etc) if I had to guess I’d say 7 pullets and 1 cockerel BUT that’s purely a guess, they could all be pullets, etc. I don’t have experience with that breed so it’s purely anecdotal at this point. My boy feathered out slower than the others, esp in the tail

 

[RoostersAreAwesome]

If they’re really ISA browns (aka red sex links) then they’re all pullets.

 

[23kthistlethwaite]

Yes they should all be pullets unless you ordered them from a hatchery otherwise (as straight runs). Plus if they were boys they would be almost white as babies with no brown on them.

 

[kaciebeckk]

We got them from Rural King and it was a trough full of ISA Browns. I’m crossing my fingers they are all pullets because that’s what we want. Just curious as to why the single chicks tail feathers are growing in extremely slow while the other 7 have almost an inch long tail?

 

[RoostersAreAwesome]

We got them from Rural King and it was a trough full of ISA Browns. I’m crossing my fingers they are all pullets because that’s what we want. Just curious as to why the single chicks tail feathers are growing in extremely slow while the other 7 have almost an inch long tail?

Natural variation. Unless they were bred for feather sexing, tails aren’t an accurate indicator of sex.

 

[kaciebeckk]

If they’re really ISA browns (aka red sex links) then they’re all pullets.

We got them at Rural King and they were in a trough labeled just ISA Browns and it had a sticker on it that said (4min-F) on the ISA brown info card attached to the trough.

 

[Rhodebar Lover]

They're all definitely pullets! Don't worry Males would have all white/yellow chick down, these gals are red

 

[23kthistlethwaite]

Natural variation. Unless they were bred for feather sexing, tails aren’t an accurate indicator of sex.

X2 I had six Wyandottes and one of them was smaller and had almost no tail while the others had long tails and they all ended up being pullets

 

[23kthistlethwaite]

We got them at Rural King and they were in a trough labeled just ISA Browns and it had a sticker on it that said (4min-F) on the ISA brown info card attached to the trough.

The “F” may have stood for female