First to get tailfeathers an indication of hens?

In most cases that turns out to be right...but I have had a few that had little tail feathers that were girls. Girls also seem to grow wing feathers faster too. If you for sure have a mixtures you will be able to tell in two weeks who are boys and who are girls.

 

another way to try and tell is spread their wings (they don't like it much lol) and if the two lines of feathers are the same length...prob boy...if one is longer than the other prob girl. Of course this is not always 100% either but it HAS been for me so far I have been correct on every chick I had so far with that.

 

Here is a link I found just now that shows this.

http://animalsciences.missouri.edu/reprod/ReproTech/Feathersex/sld003.htm

 

Thanks for the link HWMP, I just tried to sex my cochin this way, but the feathers are barely starting to pop through, and he/she's three days old. Guess I'll have to wait a little longer. Either way I figure it's fine, since I only have the one and I plan to breed with my BBS silkies to see if I can get a sizzle eventually.

 

Very interesting - I just used that series of photos for the link posted and I can tell a big difference. We will see if it works..

thanks again great info