Male or female?

[morningstar924]

That's great and I'm gonna bet they are females, I have bought close to 100 plots and have doubted the hatchery on about 10 of them. Every single time they have been females, vent sexing chicks is very accurate, so I wouldn't get rid of them until you here them crow or lay, and I bet they will lay.

 

[morningstar924]

I'll post a picture of a couple of my guaranteed hens that are same age and are rir tommorow evening.

 

[shacody]

Ah brilliant that would be great to compare .

 

[crchickens]

I think they are hens.

 

[morningstar924]

Here's two of my rir's

 

[morningstar924]

These are guaranteed hens I have had them sexed by 6 people plus the hatchery, I bought them as day old pullets

 

[shacody]

The front one is like my two.i feel a lot more optimistic now

 

[ljmecham2001]

Definatley look like my hen

 

[shacody]

Oh good more and more people saying they look female now so I'm happy

 

[One Chick Two]

Oh good

more and more people saying they look female now so I'm happy

Not so fast... lol This is your photo of your chicken.



Darkened the photo, and used red to show feather outlines, but I believe I see saddle feathers there. Can you see points?

These feathers in front of the tail should at any age be rounded on the tips of the on the females, going straight to the tail, and never flop over. Maybe I'm incorrect as the photo is hard to make this out, but the feathers seem pointed, IMO and shorter than I believe they should be at this age. (We have 83 RIR, with 15 roos.)

To make sure, pick up the chicken, wedge the feathers in between your index and forefinger. Are those thin and pointed? Take a photo of the feathers wedged between your fingers. Sharpness and somewhat bright, natural lighting make the difference when showing feathers.


Here are a few more photos:

Handsome and Henna (on r) at 8 weeks old. Notice Handsome's pinkening comb, much larger wattles. The male's body looking from shoulders to tail, is shaped like a shield, and is firmer/harder to the touch. The female is softer, shaped more like a heart. The male often has very thick legs.



Henna as she was starting to mature. Notice her face was reddening before her wattles and comb grew or turned red. Also, look at the big, thick, fat rounded feathers at the base of her tail.


Here's Henna as a pullet foraging with Henny Penny. Henny Penny is a full hen. Notice their puffy rounded feathers in front of the tail called the "cushion."




This is Rhode Island Rhett at 16 weeks. His neck feathers (hackle) and right in front of the tail (saddle) were beginning to become prominent, thin, pointed shiny. Also, green floppy rooster tail feathers coming in at the tail base.


Here's Rhett at 19 weeks. At this point, he's looking masculine and not hennish like the last photo.



Just for a size comparison by 19 weeks, Rhett is much larger than Miss Scarlet, and his comb/ waddles are much bigger and redder.