Most often one can tell by looking. The wyandottes are a good one to use. If you look at a gold laced wyandotte or a partridge wyandotte you will see that the background colour is gold.....If you look at a silver laced or a silver penciled wyandotte you will see that the background colour is white (silver).
Look at a brown leghorn it has gold hackles the silver duckwing has white where the brown has gold.... they are basically the same genetically one is gold & the other is silver. With brahmas the light is silver, the buff is gold. Most birds with red or orange are gold. It's not quite as easy with white but many birds which are the same pattern as the birds with red or gold but have white in place of the red or gold will be silver.
With rate of feather growth sex link one can see the primaries in the pullets are longer than the slower feathering males
Look at a brown leghorn it has gold hackles the silver duckwing has white where the brown has gold.... they are basically the same genetically one is gold & the other is silver. With brahmas the light is silver, the buff is gold. Most birds with red or orange are gold. It's not quite as easy with white but many birds which are the same pattern as the birds with red or gold but have white in place of the red or gold will be silver.
With rate of feather growth sex link one can see the primaries in the pullets are longer than the slower feathering males
