I'm a new chicken keeper and have questions!

[Ol Grey Mare]

Have you held them and looked at their wings. The wings will be a different shape. A girls wing will go in or have shorter feather near body. I believe there is a post on one of these pages about it. I found it very helpful at this young age. Even some pullets will have small spurs at this age.

Wing feather sexing is a sex linked trait and, as such, must be specifically bred for with a carefully chosen cross between a fast feathering male breed and a slow feathering female breed -- the resulting chicks will have the feathering rate of the opposite sexed parent and the "reading" must be done within the first three days. It is not a reliable or accurate method to sex any other chicks.

 

[elfred]

Yes I remember reading about the shape of the wings and that a pullets grow faster and the cockerel will be slower to grow its wings.. They would be rounder? I noticed particularly with the grey one how it stayed fuzzy for longer and its wings were rounder but not knowing the breed it was hard to determine confirmed by the golden ones fast growing long wing feathers and it being a cockerel as well . I suspected they were males the first week or so because their combs grew in fast and were red. They also were fighting each other with their chests pushed out. Mean while the little white one wAs so calm and friendly .

 

[nj2wv]

welcome to BYC !!