Help me with gender and breed ID

[AUtiger]

Hi, new to BYC and have 6 chicks that were hatched by my daughter's kindergarten class.(12 weeks old) The are from a local farm with several breeds (all cross breeds:not sure how that works). 4 I believe are Cochins (feathered feet) and one appears to be a black Easter egger (funky sideburns) and one a silver colored smooth legged gal (?). Based on comb size and color, I am pretty confident that 2 are roosters, and 3 are hens, but the final one seems trickier. I have uploaded some pics of each.(1R 2R 3? 4H5H6H) Any help would be awesome.

 

[AUtiger]

Here s/he is next to one of the roosters

 

[Perfect Polish]

D'uucle or cochin

 

[Kev]

Very cute pictures. Did she paint that coop? It's awesome!

Truthfully, it is not too easy to ID sex or breed from those pictures. Can't see much of the birds. It helps to have a clear view of whole backs and whole sides.

Can be confident on only one being a female- the one on lap without hands on her(Goldberry?). First one(Sasafrass) looks probably a boy and Pippen looks probably female

They are all either mixed breed probably cochin with ?? or hatchery stock cochin with different colors allowed to mix. Pippen has a pea comb so she's not pure cochin at least for sure.

 

[AUtiger]

Pippin's pea comb is what is confusing me. (I was not sure what it was called.) It's pinker and slightly larger than the other girls (which are flesh colored) but not nearly as red or large as the 2 guy's (and not the same standard comb shape). Them being "mutts" obviously doesn't help with identifying them. It's hard to get them to be still for pics unless they are chilling in our laps, making it hard to see feathers.

 

[sevenbabychicks]

First off: that is, beyond a doubt, the cutest coop I've ever seen. Did you build/paint it?? Kudos to you.

I think your mystery bird might be a roo. While I've heard of pea combs pinking up on hens at 12 weeks, they usually tend to be pretty flat and colorless until POL. I think #4 may also possibly be a roo. Could we get comb close-ups and side shots of them?

 

[AUtiger]

My husband built the coop for me, and we love it. I will try to get some more pics up tomorrow. It's already dark here in Eastern time, and they are all tucked in for the night.

 

[Kev]

Yeah not easy to get just the shot you want.

I'd suggest caution to every one not to obsess over comb size and redness at expense of any other telling traits. For example that picture of Goldberry shows a strongly red comb.. but her feather pattern matches female type pattern. If all her hatchmates happened to be female, she may have been accused of being male only because her comb happened to be redder than others...

Same reason for tentatively guessing Pippin to be female- a lot of females out colors mixed with black have a color pattern like hers but it does not totally rule out it being a male... unfortunately can't see Pippin's back and wing areas to see what the color pattern is like in those areas.

Since you know they will have color showing through their black bodies, very often the roosters will have white or red/brown edged feathers on their hackles, backs/saddles while the females often are more or less mainly colored on the front of neck and breast with back and wings tending to be black. Not a hard and fast rule though but it helps. The boys should be starting to grow their first roo feathers- super shiny with very pointy tips. If you find those type of feathers, especially with brown/red or white 'edging' or lacing on the back between the shoulders or lower down by the tail area they are boys.

 

[AUtiger]

Ok, got out the good camera, so that helped a little-camera phone is too slow. This is all so fascinating

GB and Lucy


Sassy

Top-Belladonna-Lucy Middle GoldBerry-Pip Bottom Camilla

Pip Back

Pip

Sassy, BD, Pip, Lucy

Sassy-Lucy

Belladonna

 

[Kev]

Sassy is a boy for sure. He's showing the classic pattern of color on back and wings of boys from colors mixed with black chickens. Unfortunately, Pippin seems to be showing early signs of this. I'm seeing some brown edged feathers on Pippin's back starting to show up plus think I see some shiny pointy roo type feathers on upper neck in 'Pip back' picture.

Goldberry and Lucy are girls.

Belladonna- some would say boy from the comb size and color however I am not seeing any hint of roo type feathering. Could be a big girl, could be a slower maturing boy. Would wait before deciding on this one.