My Welsummer & Barred Rock chicks- can they really be sexed at 1 day??? PICTURES

[cyndiloowho]

After a not so great hatch of much longed for chicks I ended up with 2 of each of these breeds. I fear the Welsummers are both males. They are all 24-48 hrs old.



When picked up, they went straight to sleep. Silly chicks!


Chick #1


Chick #2


Now the Barred Rocks
Chick#3 on the left & Chick #4 on the right




Chick #3



Chick #4


MUCH appreciation in advance for any help

By the way, is there ANYTHING harder to photograph than chickens? Sheesh!

 

[OkChickens]

I raised welsummers for a while and yes you can sex them. It's not 100% accurate but it was about 90% correct with me.

The females will have a distinct V on the top of their head and "eyeliner" or a dash on the back side of the eye. I believe the 2 you have hatched are both males.
As far for the barred rocks I think the large white spot is a male and the small white spot is a female but not sure on that.

Nate

 

[motherx3]

I do not know if this applies to this breed, but australorps you look at tip of the wing. If there are two layers one shorter than the other female. If they are all one length boy! Let me know of it is the same!

 

[The Chickeneer]

I dont know about the rest, but my Barred Rock hen, when she was a chick, she was black with a big white dot on her head. So I think yours with the bigger dot might be female. Im not sure though.

 

[chicken pickin]

I dont know about welsummers But I believe your BRs to be Chick #3 male(large splotchy dot) and chick #4 female(small tighter dot)

 

[(sub)UrbanCoop]

Here is a great video on YouTube that I found about sexing day old chicks using the wing/feather method. You don't have
to watch the whole video. The sexing portion starts at 3:25 of the video.

 

[debid]

I suspect three cockerels (both Wellies and the BR with the larger head spot) and one pullet (the BR with the small head dot). I'm not entirely sure on the Welsummer at the top of the first photo, though. Mine had much crisper V's than that but the males I've seen for examples were more like the bottom one in your photo so I'll say it's a maybe for me on that one.

 

[cyndiloowho]

From what I understood none of the breeds I hatched could be feather sexed because of the breed they are. Is that correct? Thank you so much for your help!

 

[Egghead_Jr]

The Rocks are definitely male for #3 and female #4. The small head dot with black on front of legs and feet is conclusive female.

 

[debid]

From what I understood none of the breeds I hatched could be feather sexed because of the breed they are. Is that correct? Thank you so much for your help!

The markings are the most accurate way (short of double-checking by a vent-sexing expert) for your two breeds. There are lots of folks who swear by the wing feather method but from what I've read, it's not accurate unless you're breeding for wing sexing.

FWIW, the Welsummers are easy to tell decisively once they have chest feathers so somewhere around 4 weeks you should know for sure. Cockerels have black splotches (turning to fully black), pullets have salmon chests.