It's true, I hate my chick :(

[Waves]

@bellz15 Wow he's a beautiful boy!

 

[Chickassan]

Ha before I even saw a single photo I said this exact very thing!

Pffftt, that's it, if it's bad behavior it must be a male.....................

 

[Rick M]

I know this is a super late update and maybe no one will see this - but here's the update on my Welsummer...

The Cretin is a.. HE.

It's insane how different he looks now.

I was convinced that it was a female, due to the 'unmistakeable' dark stripe on it's head and dark 'eyeliner'. I guess that batch of chicks didn't have the sex linked gene? Is that possible/common for welsummers?

Anyway he's now hanging out at the family farm with a bunch of australorps until he's big enough for Christmas dinner. It's looking like my wyandotte chicks are both hens- which would make me very lucky since they are my dream chickens

Thanks everyone for your help with this!

That's what happened to us, I ordered 2 welsummers and recieced 3 now I have a 5 month old cockerel. So far he is behaving his manners and dont hand feed him and walk right thru wherever we need to go making him move. Hes started mounting 2 of his litter mate leghorns pullets now.

 

[bellz15]

Gorgeous fella you've got! I suspected roo when I read your first post. Thanks for the update!

Welsummers are not sex linked. They are auto sexing which means they breed true if you breed 2 together. Sex linked is when you breed two separate breeds and one sex is X colored and the other Y at hatch, such as Golden Comets. These don't breed true.

Auto sexing in Welsummers means the boys are slightly lighter in color and their chipmunk stripe won't be so well defined. Human error. I hope that helps!

Ah yes.. I suppose I meant auto sexing. I looked up heaps of references and he had a very dark stripe- looked like a little hen to me but all's well that ends well. Thank you for your comment!

 

[bellz15]

@bellz15 Wow he's a beautiful boy!

Thanks! Can't wait for those shiny green tail feathers

 

[bellz15]

Sure looked like a female in these pics.

Good to now I'm not crazy!

 

[bellz15]

Yup I learned that when my first Welsummer, with dark stripe and eyeliner, turned out to be a boy. Second one had much lighter marks and turned out to be a girl. The whole thing about sexing them through their markings only works for certain lines so if you don't know the exact source of the chicks, you might as well just grab the first healthy chick you see regardless of markings.

This makes a lot of sense. I got the chicks from a reputable small-scale breeder in Australia and it was sold to me as straight run. Still, me thinking I'm obviously smarter someone who has dedicated their life to poultry, decided I had a pullet. My Wyandottes have beautiful lacing and I can only assume the Welsummer will also be of a high standard. I imagine that somewhere along the line the auto sexing gene was discarded or they didn't care for it anyway. There is basically no other place in the state to buy purebred chickens so there's really no other option if you want a specific breed. It makes sense they would care more about producing beautiful Welsummers than ones that can be sexed quickly and sold on mass. Thank you for your insight!

 

[aart]

I got the chicks from a reputable small-scale breeder in Australia and it was sold to me as straight run.

See even they knew their line couldn't be sexed by markings.
I bought a pair from a local 'breeder' my second year and they were accurately sexed.
The female was a pretty good bird, the male was the best cockbird I've had(out of only 3).