Help comb sexing ~4-week-old Ameraucanas (not EE!)

[enola]

How many chicks did you buy?

 

[speckledhen]

X2 Hope you got more than those few so you have a pullet or two. If you did, we'd love to see the others.

 

[Kes and Sam]

If that chick has brown on it, it is not either blue, black or splash. Something else is going on with it. A splash is a white bird, no brown off color on it, only blue/gray "accent" feathers in places, but no brown color. Could you get a picture of that one from the side so we can see the plumage? I see what appears to be brown feathers like you'd see on a wheaten chick at that age.

This is a splash chick near that age:



In this photo you posted, you see the brown on the right side of the photo, at about the 4:00 position--that looks wheaten, not BBS at all.

It doesn't have any brown feathers as far as I can tell--here is a photograph from behind of its feathering:

I think they're all cockerels.

It would be great to see pics in a few more weeks, to see how accurate we are!

Thank you for your input! I'll try to update this thread in a few weeks.

How many chicks did you buy?

We purchased the three older Ameraucana chicks pictured in this thread (they were the last three left of that age) along with three younger Ameraucana chicks and four Wyandotte chicks.

X2 Hope you got more than those few so you have a pullet or two. If you did, we'd love to see the others.

Luckily we did! We bought ten in total--six Ameraucanas and four Wyandottes. I'll try to take some photos later and post them either tonight or tomorrow.


I also have an update on sexing the three older Ameraucanas--the blue is definitely smaller than the other two, may be feathering at a different rate and its peeping is a notably higher pitch. The blue is also the most skittish and least tolerant of handling of the three. I'm thinking that the blue may turn out to be a pullet with the other two being roos.

 

[speckledhen]

This is not a splash bird, thanks for the photo. It is, however, a blue. As I mentioned, must have been the lighting or something in the other picture that appeared brown. At this age you cannot sex by behavior at all. Pullets spar both with the cockerels and each other, they can be skittish as well as the males, just a personality difference.

 

[Kes and Sam]

An update for anyone interested--on the development of the oldest three Ameraucana chicks, the black and light blue (the first and last chicks pictured) are seeming like roos with large-ish pea combs that feel raised to the touch, larger body size and lower-pitched vocalizations, while the dark blue is seeming like a pullet, with noticeably smaller body size, a pea comb that's small and feels flat when touched, and very high-pitched vocalizations. I'll try to get around to posting updated photos when I can, but we're feeling pretty confident on the black and light blue being roos and the dark blue being a pullet.

I am finally getting around to updating this thread with photos of our other chicks (taken a week ago--things have been busy here)!


Here are the three smaller Ameraucanas. Based on their body size, comb development, feathering and vocalizations, we're strongly leaning toward the dark blue chick (on the right in the first photo and left in the second) being a roo and the other two being pullets. The "roo" seems to be showing the single-comb gene which is unfortunate, but our other five Ameraucanas are all pea combed.






Two of the three BLRW. The lighter of the two (splash?) is now very noticeably the most feathered of our four BLRW and is seeming very pullet-ish developmentally. She's the only BLRW we're feeling relatively certain about. She has a wonderful temperament and hops up on our arms any time we're doing something in the brooder, so we've named her Angel.




The lovely Angel!




BLRW #2




BLRW #3 & #4




BLRW #3






BLRW #4




Angel perching on Sam's arm while he feeds the other chickens from his hand. This one's more recent--it's pretty amazing to see how much Angel developed between the 2nd and the 7th!




And lastly, an updated (but already outdated) photo of the dark blue "pullet" we've started calling Celementine.

 

[speckledhen]

This blue on the far left wouldn't be considered an Ameraucana due to the single comb, unfortunately. That would mean there is something else in the lineage. I'm not even sure it's bearded from that photo.

 

[Kes and Sam]

This blue on the far left wouldn't be considered an Ameraucana due to the single comb, unfortunately. That would mean there is something else in the lineage. I'm not even sure it's bearded from that photo.

I appreciate your comment and know that a single comb would cause the chick to not be considered an Ameraucana. I know that single combed chicks really only ever come up in experimental projects with Lavender Ameraucanas, so I've been thinking a lot about what could have happened as the breeder we purchased our chicks from keeps all of his flocks separate and purchases his birds and eggs from reputable breeders, and I think I may have figured out what happened.

The breeder we purchased our chicks from also breeds BBS Copper Marans. He has a large outdoor brooder in which all of the chicks were kept. Is it possible that we accidentally picked up one Marans chick? I've seen some photos of Marans chicks at around the same age as our younger chicks (3 1/2 weeks) and they look very similar to this one.

Thanks very much for all of your help so far! I can't believe I didn't realize the possibility of the single combed chick being a Marans until now.

 

[speckledhen]

Quote: It certainly could be, I suppose. That would be preferable to having a single combed Ameraucana, eh? You're welcome, of course. Let us know what happens with that one, will you? I'd love to see what you actually have there!

 

[ThePRfan]

Judging by combing,they all appear cocks.Why?I've had a go around with this once,and his feathering was the exact like yours are doing.Could I have leg/body pic?And be sure your keeping us updated.
Also,are they fighting with eachother?Or fighting you even?(Im warning you,if you add pullets,they may beat them to blood.My first hatched roo did this to his poor mate,and ripped her wabbles,and injured her badly.)

 

[ThePRfan]

The yellow may be a pullet,but i'm leaning.The (BLRW4)appears cockeral.Number 3 appears cockeral.Angel appears pullet.The black(Beautiful birds).