Feather sexing week old chicks?

[VRMC]

Hi everyone! I hatched out some chicks on the 3rd and 4th of July and am trying to see if they can be feather-sexed or sexed through any other visual clues. Each of these chicks has the same dad, a silver phoenix rooster, but different moms: a white crested black polish hen, a splash blue Andalusian hen, and a cream legbar hen. I’ve attached pictures of the parents and chicks below (the chick pictures were taken last week when they were a week old). The polish and cream legbar hybrid chicks both were feathering fast and starting to grow tail feathers around 5 days old, but the blue Andalusian hybrid chick did not until yesterday when they were all about a week and a half old. The cream legbar chick also does not appear to be barred (no white dot on the head or white on her wing feathers) but has inherited some green legs (hard to see in the red light). I’ve heard from others on here that these traits would indicate that she’s a female. I know that feather sexing is only possible if the rooster has the gene for fast feathering and the hen has the gene for slow feathering and since I am unsure about the parent genetics for these crosses it might be impossible to tell, but I wanted to see what everybody thought just in case.

From top to bottom
- the rooster (Raiko)
- cream legbar hen (Lou, old picture from when she was bullied)
- splash blue Andalusian (Finn)
- black polish with white crest (Cici, only have a pullet picture of her for some reason)

The chicks
- Blue Andalusian hybrid (Tsuki, slow featherer?)
- Polish hybrid (Laboon, fast featherer)
- Cream legbar hybrid (Krato, fast featherer)

Tried to get pictures where tail feathers and wing feathers were most visible, but can get better shots of other features if it would help!

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Only certain breeds and lines of breeds can be feather sexed with any accuracy. Best to wait until 4-6 weeks when the boys will get pink, than red combs.

 

[VRMC]

Only certain breeds and lines of breeds can be feather sexed with any accuracy. Best to wait until 4-6 weeks when the boys will get pink, than red combs.

Thank you! I thought that might be the case. I’ll be back in a couple of weeks then. Do you know of any good resources for learning more about the genetics of specific breeds?

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Thank you! I thought that might be the case. I’ll be back in a couple of weeks then. Do you know of any good resources for learning more about the genetics of specific breeds?

There is a genetics forum here on BYC, beyond that I don't know where else to do some reading. Just from my own experiences I know some Orpington and cochins can be sometimes feather sexed because males will feather out more slowly. Not always, but in most instances.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forums/exhibition-genetics-breeding-to-the-sop.16188/