Feather growth, good way of sexing young chicks? (Pics here!)

[Pet Duck Boy]

I'm axious to figure out what sex my 4 RIRs and 1 EE are. Heck, I'm not sure why I'm so worried. They are sexed pullets, but 90% sexing accuracy won't cut it for me. I want 100%.

So far they are all developing feathers pretty quickly, 3 are a week old today. 2 others are a day behind, so 6 for them. The three older ones have got nice little tail feathers in, and shoulder feathers are coming in well too. The 2 younger ones have tail feathers that are just appearing, and you can see just a teeny bit of shoulder feathers from looking at them. I do have a little runt RIR, but he's too small and I don't even notice any tail feathers coming in. Though it does have some wings. Judging by the rate of feather growth, is there a good chance I got what I wanted and got 5 pullets? (Not including my runt)

 

[Cindiloohoo]

Sounds like you got what you wanted to me

 

[ZooMummzy]

I'm sure other people have different opinions, but I really do not rely on sex feathering at an early age in any of my chicks. I've had cockerels feather in quicker than pullets and vice versa. I usually wait and go by the comb (EE's take a long time for this - sometimes 10-12 weeks in my experience).

 

[Bantimna]

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It would help if you posted pics.

 

[Pet Duck Boy]

Here's some pics I just took a few minutes ago, not the best.

Chick #1, oldest

Chick #1 again

Chick #2, second oldest

Chick #2 again

Chick #3, EE

Chick #4

Chick #4 again

I couldn't get a good picture of chick #5, but it's pretty much the same as chick #4, maybe a little ahead in wing growth.

 

[Pet Duck Boy]

Anyone?

 

[Chicken Fruit]

You couldnt pay me to sex an EE until its laying or crowing. I've had "roosters" suddenly start laying eggs at 25 weeks. And hens who just up and suddenly got man feathers and started crowing with late puberty. I refuse to sex them. RIR tend to show their true gender pretty early... just give them a few weeks.

I'd flip those chicks, thats been my most accurate way of sexing them that young.

 

[Pet Duck Boy]

Actually I did last night, all held their legs to themselves. Only one or two put one leg out.

 

[ZooMummzy]

In my honest opinion, they are way too young to sex. I think you are going to have to wait till they are at least 6 weeks old. I did the leg trick with all of mine that hatched in January...more than half of them that held their legs tight to their bodies turned out to be cockerels. I would just wait a few weeks. You will start to see waddles and or a more pink/red comb around 4-5 weeks on most chicks. EE's...I don't sex mine until they crow because I've been fooled too many times by them.

 

[Jasont]

ok... whats the leg trick... how do you do it and what are you looking for?