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Question, I've noticed that two of my peachicks (one of the older ones and one of the younger ones) are darker than the other two, who are more of a light brown. I was looking at pics of grown IBs and the males have dark chocolatish feathers and the females are more light brown.
~ Aspen
Post pictures
Don't have any, but might bring them in for a quick picture after I doctor my sick pea.
Haven't heard the one crest feathers one before, worth checking it out. Truth is many have their way of sexing. Amount of barring on the backs is a very common one and works on chicks slightly older than your pair, because they need to go thru more feather growth before less vs more barring becomes evident. I start guessing as soon as the peachicks get their neck feathers. The females show an early version of the 'lacing' on young and adult peahens- dark feathers edged in buff color. I could see some of those on the right chick... On boys the neck feathers are more variably patterned showing some little dots plus on many the light colored area below the neck is whiter than on girls. (edited to add, I look at front of the necks not on backs for the patterning and the dots on boys are dark, not light little dots- it's in the same general area in below comment regarding zazouse pics)
In zazouse's pictures, you can already well developed dark feathers with buff lacing on the girls and the boy has an clearly whiter area below the neck- also look at the border between the white area and colored neck, some individual feathers have a spot or two spots on each feather. This can show up really early, before the amount of barring is very clear.
Others swear by sexing the primaries right at hatch, boys have reddish, girls have brown.. have not been able to see the difference on this myself until the birds are older and already showing differences in neck and barring though
WoW! Excellent info Kev, TYVM!! I'm like a sponge when it comes to learning about new additions to my ranch, I try to absorb as much info, as fast as I can, and I usually fry my brain and suffer major sleep deprivation in the process, lol.
PS...
I THINK, but I am not possitive that I read about the crest feather sexing tip on this forum...