Help sex our chicks please I feel we were dooped

[cochinsarecute]

Well the Sussex is a pullet and so are the two black ones the Wyandotte s are harder to say the one that clearly has some sickle feathers growing out of its tail one of the silver ones is a cockerel one of the blues looks like it may have sickle feathers as well however Wyandotte girls do have a kinda high tail feathers I am leaning towards saying pullets approaching point of lay if they are really 4 months some breeds mature and reach this point earlier than other's your best bet is to look for male feathers even if it's hard to tell the more rounded female feathers from the triangle male feathers across there back in the sunlight males feathers have a shinny sheen to them almost like they have oil on them look at the one that you know for sure is a roo and you should see what I am talking about also look at behavior I'd expect males that old to be attempting to mate or crowing by now and and at the very least chest bumping also there should be a clear size difference between males and females( of the same breed) at this point this is if and only if they are 4 months old to me they don't look quite big enough to be that old if they are 3 months which is about how old they look to me I'd be saying the opposite that they are roos saying that based on how small they look in your husband's hand Hopefully this will be helpful

 

[Cedar grove]

Thanks so much for your input... God I'm hoping they are not all Roos! This is a pic of them when we got them (in early may) the silver in the pic is a guaranteed roo. So far one other Lacey started to crow 2 weeks ago. The only make that seems to show make behaviors is the silver roo Francisco. The other Lacey that started to crow is very docile. I am a cattle girl and chickens are much more stressful! Up until yesterday I was convinced the other smaller silver (in my hubs hand) was a female. Now after researching and studying they all look male to me. I called the local ag extension to see what they think. I have little children that are really attached to the birds as well so this may end up being a tough lesson for us all

 

[cochinsarecute]

They do look three weeks old in the pic so maybe you've got some early maturing females Take a good look in the sun at the two confirmed boys and look for the "oily" feathers on them and see if the others in question have them. Also note body size and feet size of the confirmed male that's the same age as the ones in question the males feet and body should be bigger by this age. Or are both confirmed boys the ones that are two weeks older? I know how it is to have girls turn into boys and it's always the ones the kids fall in love with for some reason at three weeks it would have been hard for anyone to guarantee sex of chicks 5-6 weeks at the very earliest if I was selling to someone although I can tell at three weeks old sometimes I'd never take the chance of selling to someone who asked for guaranteed girls at that age. Did they give you the option of bringing back any extra cockerel and exchanging for pullets if they were wrong? Also all of you wyandotte look like blue laced red to me the "silver" ones look like blue laced red splash wyandottes to me silver laced are black and white they are gorgeous birds though no matter what they turn out to be

 

[Zerlog]

Help! We are new to the chicken world and now feeling overwhelmed. Our chicks are now 4-5 months old. We were supposed to have 8hens and one rooster. I know for a fact that we have two roosters and I fear most of our hens are Roos

.sorryt he pics are bad but I've trained the chicks and they follow me. I can get better pics when my hubs is home to help

Did you order from Mcmurray hatchery? I had a similar experience this year. We ordered 4 hens and we got 6, one died,and 4 were roosters. So we only got one hen from the whole thing.

 

[cochinsarecute]

...

Did you order from Mcmurray hatchery? I had a similar experience this year. We ordered 4 hens and we got 6, one died,and 4 were roosters. So we only got one hen from the whole thing.  
[/quotient oh nooo !! I've heard so many bad reviews about them I don't think I will ever order from them. I have placed several orders with my pet chicken and have never had a roo I didn't order they even sexed 8 female silkie s and one male right which is unheard of and I am still scratching my head how they do it. All so far arrived live and healthy (except one amerucana that had cross beak but wasn't apparent on arrival) so after the silkie s I've never ordered from a anyone else they are a tad bit more pricy but in my opinion it's worth the extra for shipping when you don't have to worry about extra roos. There customer service is also great.I've also placed one order at chickensforbackyards and they sent two extra one was a roo although I only ordered females but it was a bantam size and extra hard to sex so I forgave them and he's one of my favorites now

 

[Cedar grove]

I got them from a local place (I kind of live in chickenvillle). I wanted organic free range. This morning I snuck out and just sat and watched... All of my wyandottes are males . I'm so upset. I did, however speak to the chicken rep from local ag dept and he told me always order/ get double the amount of birds than you want because no one can give you better than an 80-90% guess. I also got my chicks in the spring which he said was a no no. That for best production I needed to get chicks hatched in late July/ early August. And I need to cut my chicks back to 1/2 rations because they need to thin out before the winter... So much I don't know! I grew up on beef farms so I'm still learning about the poultry world

 

[cochinsarecute]

So sorry they are all male I'd say there's nothing at all wrong with getting chicks in spring so don't fell bad some people ( not me) will get new chicks late summer so they are approaching pol late winter/ early spring as day light hours start to increase then they use them for layers untill there first molt then kull all for meat and start over every year with new chicks because after first molt egg production goes down a bit each time they molt. I like many choose to let my chickens live threw a few molts before considering killing for low egg production even if I have to spend more on feed a few of mine will always have a home here I consider them retired lol I've also never heard of reducing feed in winter I'd caution doing that mine also free range 12 hours a day but need extra in winter to keep up this sounds like advice I'd here given to a mass production farm not a regular person trying to have a few chickens for meat and eggs for their family just my opinion if you live in chickenville I am sure there are plenty of people around willing to sell you some pullets at pol or maybe trade a couple boys for one girl it's not too late in the year to order some females online and get eggs by spring my pet chicken is excellent at sexing another option is to order sex linked so your sure you will get girls

 

[Cedar grove]

He said I needed to cut back feed now so they have to forage more so they are not too fat for winter?? News to me but I don't think my birds are fat yet anyway . Does anybody have feelings on adding a few more birds to my flick since I'm now down to just a handful? Do you think I will run into bullying?

 

[cochinsarecute]

Hmmmm I've never heard of a chicken getting too fat for winter and no your chickens are not fat ( never met a fat free ranger lol) I would be interested in hearing what others on here have to say about rationing food for winter maybe you could post something in the feeding section on here I've never heard of doing that. I know you can hold back rations on broiler meat chickens but never heard of doing that for layers or dual purpose. As far as adding to your flock I'd say go for it don't let this bump in the road stop you Yes there will be some pecking and squabbles but that's to be expected they will have to reset pecking order but done right doesn't have to be too traumatic. If you are going to get rid of the 4 extra roos that will leave you with 5 I'd get a least 5(or more if you want) girl's so when you do mix them there less likely to gang up if it's a bigger or equal to groups size for example if you had 12 birds and tried to introduce 3 it would be harder than introducing 12 to 12 safety in numbers if that makes since but not impossible just harder on the hens being introduced. It's easier also when free rangeing as they have plenty to keep them occupied besides the new birds most of mine are more interested in seeing what they can go scratch up after a few minutes than the new birds. This is how I do it I have a section in my coop/run for broodies/chicks/New flock members/or sick that is 4 by 8 and has its own separate door but whoever is in it can see and talk to but not be bothered by the rest of the flock I leave them there's for about a week till everyone knows everyone but at a safe distance in the day the rest of the flock free ranges and the newbies have the coop and run to there self I put them back in the 4 by 8 section at night before letting the rest back in the coop /run and locking up at night. After aabout a week I'll let the main flock out first and let them eat and leave the coop door open and when most of the flock is done eating and off ranging let the newbies out to range for the day they is little fighting when done this way for me at least I do this for about a week or more letting them range together in the day and going to there own separate sections of the coop at night then after that I lock the separate section at night and everyone has to go in the main coop. If bringing in chicks I do the same thing and let them start free ranging together at about 8 weeks during the day until 12 weeks then closing off the little section so they go in the main coop. If you don't have a separate area you could use a large dog kennel and keep them cooped in it at night in the coop and let the others out to range during the day while the newbies had the coop to there self. I have an outside nesting/food/water area for my flock so they don't mind being locked out of the coop during the day when going threw all this