Hackle feathers?

[marytoast]

Where are hackle feathers and can you sex an ameracauna by them?

 

[Guitartists]

Hackle feathers are around the neck....

See here https://www.backyardchickens.com/LC-anatomy.html

But some breeds the females can also have rather pointy and shiney hackles.... saddle feathers, I think, are the better way to know.

They start to come in on the back about midway down and if it is a cockerel of around 3-5 months of age you should be able to see them coming in pointy.

Here's a pic of some saddle feathers from my Ameraucanas....

Pullet, slow developing cockerel, slow dev. cockerel, cockerel,and pullet.

 

[marytoast]

Thanks a buch! That was very helpful. I am just trying to sex my 3 wk. old ameracaunas. I think it is impossible

 

[Guitartists]

At 3 weeks.. yes

You're going to have to wait a bit longer... at least 8 weeks before the first real signs will start to come in. Are these true Ameraucana or Easter Eggers? My EEs were much quicker to show signs than my actual Ameraucanas.... I had 2 BBS Ameraucanas that were very slow in developing and still looked like pullets when the other cockerels were clearly cockerels. This was at 5-6 months of age. My EEs I could pretty much tell at about 8 weeks.

 

[gritsar]

When you were a kid did you ever hear the expression "don't get your hackle feathers up"?
Once you see an adult rooster raise his hackles at a disobedient hen, you'll know where the expression came from.