I had one good recent all female hatch. I set 3 blue copper eggs and all three were females lol. When does that ever happen? The hatch before them had 4 set and 3 were boys and one girl. The one before that I set 4 and 2 were boys and 2 girls. I think overall I'm breaking even lol. Seems like every splash baby I get turns out to be a roo though. I got another splash from my hatch the other day. *Please be a girl this time...*
Mostly when the comb develops.
With most of my black coppers, I can tell right away because for some reason the males are born with larger combs than the females. The females seem to be born with pretty much no comb in my blk coppers. This doesn't work for me with my other colors of marans. Some of the babies that I have mixed the blue coppers with black coppers, the blue copper male babies have had larger combs too. That is not supposed to be a reliable way to tell sex in general but for my black coppers it has been 100% so far. I've been hatching them for over a year.
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If you post photos (full side shots) that show the wing area real good and from head to tail, I'll give ya my best guesses Steve.
What's the final word on the hatches? eta: I re-read your previous post.
At days 3-4 I watch primary and secondary feather growth on wings as I have found the girls will have longer primaries and secondaries and the males will have short secondaries. At about 5-7 days I also start watching tail feathers.....my females tend to start getting tail feathers faster as well, while the boys may not even have a feather starting yet on the tail. I also watch for shoulder feathers to come in around a week of age on the girls....my girls get their shoulder feathering in faster than the boys....fact....my females tend to feather faster than the boys no matter what.
By about 10 days to 2 weeks you should be able to see very good comb and wattle development on the boys. I have one little BCM cockerel right now that fooled me for 3 weeks.....the biggest reddest fattest comb I have ever seen on a chick and all of a sudden it happened like overnight, but it took until almost 3 weeks of age for me to get this little one called correctly, so it is not always 100% accurate.
Hey Kim,
Final stats are
8/10 Wellies - 7 Ladies I believe
9/14 Marans - 4 Black, 3 Blue, 2 Splash
Not urgent that I find out what sex they are - just wondering about how long before I would have a clue. None of them show much of any comb at all yet... All girls??????? (kidding
)
What do you look for in the wings?
Steve
ETA: Thanks for the above info - got it! And thanks for everything else. I am very pleased
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If you post photos (full side shots) that show the wing area real good and from head to tail, I'll give ya my best guesses Steve.
What's the final word on the hatches? eta: I re-read your previous post.
At days 3-4 I watch primary and secondary feather growth on wings as I have found the girls will have longer primaries and secondaries and the males will have short secondaries. At about 5-7 days I also start watching tail feathers.....my females tend to start getting tail feathers faster as well, while the boys may not even have a feather starting yet on the tail. I also watch for shoulder feathers to come in around a week of age on the girls....my girls get their shoulder feathering in faster than the boys....fact....my females tend to feather faster than the boys no matter what.
By about 10 days to 2 weeks you should be able to see very good comb and wattle development on the boys. I have one little BCM cockerel right now that fooled me for 3 weeks.....the biggest reddest fattest comb I have ever seen on a chick and all of a sudden it happened like overnight, but it took until almost 3 weeks of age for me to get this little one called correctly, so it is not always 100% accurate.
Hope this helps.
Mornin' Pink!
Well, if this is the case, I may have 5 girls! All got their wing feathers and starts of tails quickly. They are 8 days old today. I'm still not sure about the one I had initially thought was a BCM. Still looks black, but the shoulders look blue?? I'll see if I can't get some more pics of them today.
Spent yesterday cleaning out the coop (only took 7 loads with the big wheelbarrow!), and spreading the mess in the garden spot. Gorgeous day yesterday, and today is the same with less wind, and getting into the 70s!! Hope to start tilling some of the debris into the soil, if it's not still too wet. I will say the deep litter method, did keep the coop warmer this winter, and the litter was very decomposed and should do my clay soil quite well. Spread DE all over the coop floor and nest boxes, and laid new pine shavings. Put some of the old litter out in the run to dry up some spots, and added some DE to it. Sure enough, the chooks (especially Pip) took to dust bathing for the majority of the day. Fugs made it out of the run without getting the tar whaled out of him this morning. We have a new routine now. He goes into the coop last in the evening, and roosts in a nest box. First one out of the coop in the morning, and I stand by the gate and open it for him as he flies past me like a bullet!
He tangled with a curious cat yesterday, and my old girl Uma, the German Shepherd, was in hot pursuit of him for a bit. Of course these days, her hot pursuit isn't all that hot, she's 14 and fairly crippled up, so Fugs can out run her with ease. What a circus around here!
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Congratulations................The first hatch is the BEST, but they are all great. I never lose the great anticipation that builds as hatch day nears...........LOL
