How do I sex 3 wk old chicks?

[neww2chickens]

Hi, I am new to having chickens and I got 9 3 wk old chicks, 5 Lavender Orpingtons and 4 Easter Eggers. I have been wondering how I will be able to tell if they are roosters or Hens? Unfortunately I can not have roosters and I am a little nervous about if they are. I thought maybe if they have bigger tails they might be roosters but if that is the case I would only have 4 hens. So Can I get some help on how to sex them? thanks

 

[azygous]

Cockerels get their flamboyant tails last of all around four to six months.

At three weeks, the only signal you have a cockerel is a distinctive reddening of the comb and the appearance of tiny red wattles under the lower beak.

Sometimes behavior is a give-away. If you happen to have more than one cockerel, they seem to find each other fairly young and will play fight and chest bump.

A cockerel may have slightly thicker legs and larger feet.

Most of these indicators don't appear until five or six weeks, though.

 

[neww2chickens]

ok, thanks a lot! So the tails have nothing to do with their sex? If so, I am so relieved. Thanks so much!

 

[rosemarythyme]

I've learned with some breeds males feather in more slowly, so a lack of tail at that age might actually indicate roo instead. Sounds a little contradictory when the males are the ones with the showier tails in the end.

 

[MeepBeep]

The short answer unless it's a breed that has distinct sexual differences at that age, you can't reliably sex short of DNA testing...

Since Easter Eggers are not a breed and their genetic makeup can vary all over the place it can sometimes take much, much longer to properly sex sometimes they wont' fully reveal their sex until maturity...

 

[neww2chickens]

wow thanks, I only just got chickens last weekend and I have never had them before. Thx for the help

 

[dekel18042]

The best indicators are either when they crow or lay an egg. Before then it can be a guessing game depending on the breed. I've had both pullets and cockerels chest bump. Sometimes behavior is a giveaway.
And yes on the thicker legs and bigger feet ...usually. We hatched out a clutch of eggs that unbeknownst to us were all pullets. Now what are the chances of that? This was a breed with a cushion comb and little to no wattles, so we thought we had them sorted out. I was happy there seemed to be mostly girls, but three looked like they had thicker sturdier legs. Finally after months we realized we had all girls and I had really wanted a rooster in that bunch.
I recently separated chicks, not ten weeks old into two pens, one for the pullets, one for the cockerels and just yesterday we heard the first crowings from the pullet pen.

I was suspicious but was really hoping for a girl on that one as a fox recently got the mother.So there are indicators, but it is easy to be driven crazy.
Now I have only one I'm not sure of. Really want it to be a girl for the same reason as the other, but if I had to bet.......For some reason I almost always hatch more cockerels.