Euskal Oiloa ( Basque Thread)

[naturespace]

Has anyone tried feather sexing with this breed? I know if can work for some. I see a difference in our new chicks but I'm not sure how reliable it is.

I noticed a difference in my chicks but not until week 2. Males have a larger comb right away. By week 3 I'm seeing a color difference in feather colors. Female is redder, but now it's even more obvious by comb and wattle. If you go back a few pages you will see that the red is not always a good indication. Maggiesdad, had a "dude look like a lady". Of the other chick photos I've seen some that are yellow, reddish yellow and whitish yellow, but it doesn't seem to be a sex related coloring.

 

[Maggiesdad]

I've given up trying to figure out their feathers - it changes week by week anyway.

My darkest little cinnamon dusted chicks are still the darkest now as pullets, a rich mellow butterscotch.

My pullets that had loads of white feathers as chicks are evening out as light buttertscotch, maybe buff?

Forrest, the pullet feathered dude... I still don't know about him. He gets lighter week by week.

The roos just get more handsome day by day... glad I've got help coming to assist with selections.

 

[Young Heritage]

Cannot sex EO chicks. True EO chicks should be yellow down only. The other color variations we are seeing is due to crossing the EOs with other breeds in the past. That is what we are working on getting breed out.

 

[cjwaldon]

My chicks are just over 3 weeks old and I still can't tell which are the boys and which are the girls. I'm just looking at the combs because the colors don't seem consistent, and the colors seem to change very few days. A couple with lots of gray initially are now feathering golden buff. I'm starting to see suttle changes in the combs and overal size/weight, so hopefully in the next couple of weeks I'll know. I tagged one over a week ago as a roo and his comb is now starting to show a little pink. Oh, and one of them appears like it's going to be solid white.

 

[Laingcroft]

Cannot sex EO chicks. True EO chicks should be yellow down only. The other color variations we are seeing is due to crossing the EOs with other breeds in the past. That is what we are working on getting breed out.

One problem with this is that one person's "yellow" is another person's "butterscotch" or "white" or "creme" or "buff" or "lemon" or whatever.

The other problem is I've got chicks that started out the same exact "yellow" who are feathering out a variety of very different colors. Perhaps they aren't "true" EO chicks, but after all the discussion here, I doubt anyone in the western hemisphere has "true" spanish/basque/french EO chickens anyway...if they all truly came from one source that "polluted" the "true" type by cross breeding. I guess we should say we all have "North American EO" and just breed for the closet to "true" type that we can.

 

[cjwaldon]

Any one want to play "Guess the Gender"?

 

[cjwaldon]

BLUE -

 

[naturespace]

Any one want to play "Guess the Gender"?

Blue: yes! how old? 3 weeks? Roo is my guess

 

[cjwaldon]

BROWN -

 

[cjwaldon]

sorry, 3 weeks old