How to tell if the chicks a boy or girl

[Naughty]

Okay - so what I'm getting is for amberlinks - no one really has a clue how to sex em yet...for sure - so the first person who bought them from TSC and had one of theirs crow - or lay an egg - then take a pic and post it for the rest of us! THen we'll know! But then again - the TSC i went to also had a bin labeled golden comets... but at the time they were separated out - I thought i already had some birds on the way from elsewhere - by the time I found out different - they were all on the clearance rack with no label - (other than the bantams were separated) so I basically tried to just get the ones who were not as "cocky" - smaller overall - but then again - TSC had no clue on the ages either - so these may have been young ones...

I don't mind one rooster - if he's docile - but will hate if I have two and have to get rid of one cause they fight or if it is aggressive - cause by that time my kid will be attached - ours are all pets.... crossing my fingers

 

[104piper]

I am new to this whole chicken thing but am lovin it already! I bought some chicks last week from TSC and couldn't resist a few more today...got 5 Dekalb Amberlinks...4 are light yellow with just a touch of white on their wings and one (who I suspect is the roo) is yellow with light brown on his head and back with a touch of white on his wings....now if my theory is really opposite I have 4 roo's and 1 pullet....

Piper, Mother of 3 Kids, 3 Cats, 1 Rabbit and now 19 chicks!!

 

[104piper]

I found a pic on the internet (Feathersite) of an Amberlink pullet.....
Check this out!

http://www.feathersite.com/Poultry/CGP/Sex-links/BRKSexLink.html


Piper

 

[pittpeng]

From the website: http://grannieannie.allotment.org.uk/picture-gallery-4-2nd-batch-of-amberlinks

"Hi Kari, yes the Amberlinks are a pretty bird aren't they? Can be a bit flighty until they start laying though, ours used to fly over a 6ft fence! and they can sometimes be prone to feather pecking, but hopefully yours will be okay!

Amberlinks are feather sexed in the hatcheries at birth, so usually with ours, we get all girls, but have had 3 cockerels in the last 3 years! With feather sexing, it is done between 1 and 3 days old and if the primary wing feathers are the same length as the coverts, then its a boy, if the primary wing feathers are longer, then its a girl!

But generally we can tell the boys quite early, say 2-4 weeks because their combs and wattlesgrow very quickly! Except in teh case of Rosie, who was our smallest bird in the flock, but had huge comb and wattles. she never crowed and never laid an egg. We re-homed her last year as we needed the little ark where she lived as the other birds kept bullying her. She will be 3 years old on 7th September, and her new owner told me the other week that at this great age, she has actually started to lay eggs!!! lol"

hope this helps

 

[logansmommy7]

Our TSC had a ton of Amberlinks too...I had never seen them, nor did I know how to sex them so I chose the Black Australorps. At almost a week old, about 8 out of 12 have long wingfeathers-the others are growing slower...so I'm hoping I have more pullets....we'll see! The whole 'amberlink' think intrigued me though...the pics of adults are nice looking though!

 

[BC_Farms]

Went today to our local TSC to pick some up but no one seemed to want to wait on me!

I'll stop by either tomorrow or Thursday to pick some up. The minimum is 6 but I might just get 10. Looked up feather sexing, so I'm going to go and try to sex them that way...even though they are older than a few days, the chicks either have longer feathers or shorter feathers on their wings. The ones with longer feathers have tail feathers coming in too....so I think those are the females.

There doesn't seem to be a color difference between the chicks. I think raising them will be fun though.

 

[Davaroo]

Quote:
Im guessing from these clues that the Amberlink is a cross between a Leghorna and some other breed.

 

[BC_Farms]

Found this on a website (said by Grannie Annie actually):

I think the Amber stars and the Amberlinks are the same birds, just different breeding companies. The Amberlinks lay well as Rob says, and are a cross between the RIR and Light Sussex, like the goldlines but with the cross the other way round.

(http://chat.allotment.org.uk/index.php?topic=18379.0)​

 

[Davaroo]

Feather sexing is usable, but imprecise without very careful breeding. Practically speaking, for the home chickeneer, it is near useless since it is both breed and strain dependent. This is where it differs from vent sexing.

It is mentioned later on in your quoted post that the breeding information given is not sure, so we still don't know for certain what breeds make up the Amberlink. I have learned that they originated in S. Africa, but not what particular breeds were used. Whether it was Sussex on RIR remains unsure, although there is reason to suspect that.

Feather sexing became possible in 1969 thanks to genetic research by the Tegels Poultry Breeding Company. This method to determine the sex of newly hatched chicks is possible if a female from a slow-feathering breed (dominant K alelle) is crossed with a male from a fast-feathering breed (recessive k allele).

The sex of the chicks produced from this cross can be determined during the first 48 hours after hatching by looking at the primary and secondary feathers located on the chick's wings. The primary feathers will be noticeably longer than the secondary feathers on a female chick. On a male, the primary and secondary feathers are the same length.

As I recall, feather sexing is possible with only a few of today's common breeds, primarily those among the Mediterranean group. It is known that the Mediterranean lines were introduced into Britain by the Romans, and they have mingled over time to eventually become what we call the Sussex and Dorking breeds. So using a strain of Sussex where the fast feathering trait was retained makes sense for breeding feather-sexed Amberlinks. However, that remains unconfirmed.

Its certain that all breeds of chickens have feathering genes (K/k), which feather sexing relies on. But the fast feathering trait has been receded in nearly all of them, so the feather characteristics of both sexes at birth generally appear identical. Only careful culling and extensive breeding among at least two wholly separate flocks would bring out the fast feathering trait where it doesn't already exist. Since we want to spend our money on slower feathering, larger birds in our domestic industry, vent sexing of such birds has remained the standard in the domestic hatchery business.

Feather sexing remains mostly on the commercial side, since it applies to the many leghorn crosses seen in the egg business. It seems the Amberlink is an escapee from that commercial trade, now being sold into the domestic market. Who'dve thunk it?

 

[BC_Farms]

Wow thanks for that history lesson! When I go and pick up my chicks (probably tomorrow) I will take pics and post them here to see what everyone thinks and maybe we can help the OP out too. Collin, could you post some current pictures?

As for coloring, the cockerels have a lot more color splashes on their feathers whereas the pullets are mostly white. In the chicks I've seen (a bin with about 25 all the same age), they are all yellow with no markings, feather out white, and some of the new feathers look to have the "amber" color on it. The only many visual difference looks to be their feather lengths and that the ones with longer wing feathers also have tail feathers started and ones on their shoulders (not sure if those are hackle feathers or not).


ETA: David, I think you are right now in leghorns being in the cross. I haven't been into chickens for that long, but it seems to me that the amberlinks would be heavier if they were indeed a RIR/Sussex cross, but they are on the scrawny side like a leghorn.