Help sexing black copper marans

[JDB99]

1

2

3

I am guessing 1 is a boy, 2 a girl? 3 is almost for certain a boy. Number 1 and 2 I'm unsure of. They are currently 4 weeks old.

 

[Crazy for Chickens!]

1 and 3 are definitely boys. Please wait untl six weeks, for the second one.

 

[JDB99]

Everyone is being kept as I have 25 hens and 6 more young pullets they will get to have.

 

[Cluckingham palace capers]

All look like cockerels to me.

 

[Spartan22]

Agree 1 & 3 cockerel #2 debatable

 

[Ol Grey Mare]

Cockerel
Undecided
Cockerel

 

[drumstick diva]

x 2

 

[JDB99]

Ive read that black copper marans develop bigger combs earlier on than most other breeds, really would like to have 2 males and 1 female.

 

[Ol Grey Mare]

Ive read that black copper marans develop bigger combs earlier on than most other breeds, really would like to have 2 males and 1 female.

Size and color are 2 different things. In the case of the bird shown it is not so much the amount of comb and wattle development shown by birds 1 and 3 but the color of that development. There are breeds in which pullets will develop reasonable amounts of comb and wattle growth early on, but even in those breeds the color does not develop until the bird is reaching maturity while cockerels develop both size and color of comb and wattle.

 

[ronott1]

Size and color are 2 different things. In the case of the bird shown it is not so much the amount of comb and wattle development shown by birds 1 and 3 but the color of that development. There are breeds in which pullets will develop reasonable amounts of comb and wattle growth early on, but even in those breeds the color does not develop until the bird is reaching maturity while cockerels develop both size and color of comb and wattle.

X2!
Great explanation!