Four roosters and one hen?

[cyberwuzzle]

Hi -- I'm new to the forum and new to chickens. At the beginning of July I purchased five Rhode Island Reds (although now I know they might be "production reds") from a local farm. The man tried to give me all females, but I'm starting to suspect I got four males and one female.

They are something like 3 and a half weeks old. One of them is not maturing as quickly as the others and she (?) has a black line on her head. The rest of the chicks did not have black lines (I don't think, anyway) and now have little combs starting. The biggest one has the start of little waddles. I understand that female RIRs have red combs and waddles, but I'm concerned about that black mark. I read that's how to tell the sex of a RIR? If it has a black line on its head, it's female. Also, that little one with the black line isn't as big or aggressive as the others.

Anyway, here are a few pictures. Any opinions are welcome. And, wow, I'm really hoping someone says, "Oh, yeah, all those are girls."

 

[CochinBrahmaLover]

Black line is illrelavent.
Could you get some face pics of each one? Hard to say, but looks like you may have 1 girl, and rest are boys /:

 

[Kelsie2290]

Sorry, without individual pics, it does look like mostly boys, at least three, probably four. RIR can't be reliably sexed by down color as chicks, production reds are usually a mix of various red breeds and can't either, red sex links can be sexed by chick color, but the males are mostly white.

 

[cyberwuzzle]

Thanks for your replies. I did post head and body shots of the chicks over in the Breed and Gender forum. I'm thinking three roos and two hens. Bummer.

 

[The Mother Hen]

It does look like four males and one female. Sorry, the pictures need to be individual for me to check right. If they do end up being males, you can always sell them and buy others.