Males or Females?

[gardenmama888]

Hello!

I incubated eggs that I purchased locally with the goal of finally being able to have some hens that lay fun color eggs (mostly green but some blue and gray as well)! The owner said her roos are all Marans and then her hens are mixed so I am not sure exactly what the breeds are - just that they are mixed.

They are over 4 months old. I just wanted to get feedback on which are Roos so that I can give them to a friend.

I have numbered them 1-7. I think 6&7 are Roos.

Thank you so much!

 

[MamaPoult]

I agree 6 and 7 look like boys to me!

 

[fluffycrow]

All the birds pictured are pullets

 

[Winderdear]

Agreed, all pullets!

 

[MysteryChicken]

All are pullets.

 

[dripbabygirl]

cute

 

[AinaWGSD]

Don't see any obvious boys

 

[gardenmama888]

Oh wow! Thanks for your thoughts everyone! Can you tell me for #6 and #7 what you are seeing that makes you think they are not Roos? I thought their tail feathers looked like they were starting to turn into saddle feathers?

By 4+ months should it be fairly obvious if they are male or female?

 

[Winderdear]

Oh wow! Thanks for your thoughts everyone! Can you tell me for #6 and #7 what you are seeing that makes you think they are not Roos? I thought their tail feathers looked like they were starting to turn into saddle feathers?

By 4+ months should it be fairly obvious if they are male or female?

I’m not an expert like @fluffycrow or @MysteryChicken, and am still learning, but here are my thoughts...

I personally don’t see anything that looks like male saddle feathers on any of your birds. All the feathers look rounded, rather than thin and pointy. Also, some of your birds have a female specific color pattern (1, 3 and 5), which makes it easy to know they’re not boys at least. Lastly, I would expect bigger combs on any of the single-combed birds, as well as potentially large patches of red on the shoulders of the 6th one if it were male.

I think it depends on the breed to be able to tell gender by 4 months, but in a lot of cases the male-specific feathers should be showing by now, as well as any obvious leakage on the shoulders.

 

[AinaWGSD]

Oh wow! Thanks for your thoughts everyone! Can you tell me for #6 and #7 what you are seeing that makes you think they are not Roos? I thought their tail feathers looked like they were starting to turn into saddle feathers?

By 4+ months should it be fairly obvious if they are male or female?

#6 is giving some rooish vibes in the last two pics but every single one of those saddle feathers is nice and round. They're also more broad than rooster saddle feathers. #7 also has broad round saddle feathers, and while I don't know for sure that color is gender specific I can't say I've ever seen a rooster with a gold head and (mostly) solid black body and wings.