Newbie looking for help with chick gender, please

[OzGH]

Hi everyone!
We got a hen and 11 chicks (all mutts) from our neighbours a while ago. They have been living with us for almost six weeks now and our daughter has had a blast watching them grow. It's time to pick the ones we will keep and send the others back to our neighbours to join their flock. Since we have a 2 year old toddler, I really don't want a rooster at this point in time! I was hoping for some help with picking the right chicks....

Here are the contenders and my guesses (they are all about 7 weeks now, and mutts, as I said):

#1 - pullet



#2 - pullet


#3 - the posture says roo, but the comb???


#4 - leaning towards pullet


#5 - looks like a roo, but I like the colouring - and hope dies last ;-)


#6 - no idea


#7 - hoping pullet, but...


All the others are very obviously roos, even for a newbie like me, so I won't bug you with those.

Any help very much appreciated!
Thank you in advance,

Manu

 

[chooks4life]

Hi everyone!
We got a hen and 11 chicks (all mutts) from our neighbours a while ago. They have been living with us for almost six weeks now and our daughter has had a blast watching them grow. It's time to pick the ones we will keep and send the others back to our neighbours to join their flock. Since we have a 2 year old toddler, I really don't want a rooster at this point in time! I was hoping for some help with picking the right chicks....

Here are the contenders and my guesses (they are all about 7 weeks now, and mutts, as I said):

#1 - pullet
Yep



#2 - pullet
Yep


#3 - the posture says roo, but the comb???
Posture like this isn't male specific, even typical 'roo' posture and behavior isn't strictly male either and pullets or hens can and do often show it too. The posture we think is male is actually a body language communication for readiness to fight, with the stance and the wing angles, and hens/pullets adopt the same stance when getting into a fight as well. This stance is too angled and would be either due to a physical difference or genetics, or curiosity and mild alarm if it's not a common stance it holds. It looks like a pullet to me but could be male, time will tell.


#4 - leaning towards pullet
Depending on what genetics it has, I'm thinking it's male at this point, as the crest is more normal for an underdeveloped male than a normal female at that age. If it's a Cornish mix or something like that it could be a pullet but females of most chicken breeds won't show swollen crest spikes and pinkness at that age, at least if they're not on special diets they won't.


#5 - looks like a roo, but I like the colouring - and hope dies last ;-)
Yeah, reckon you're right, looks like an underdeveloped male.


#6 - no idea
It is a bit inbetweener, isn't it? I'm thinking pullet, the spikes are very fine-tipped, generally males' spikes will swell up and blunten even as week-olds if their diet and upbringing allows the fastest growth, but otherwise you should see it around 6 weeks, give or take.


#7 - hoping pullet, but...
Perhaps a stealth male, those spikes are pretty blunt.


All the others are very obviously roos, even for a newbie like me, so I won't bug you with those.

Any help very much appreciated!
Thank you in advance,

Manu

Just my opinions, if you can give us any info on what breeds went into the mix you'll possibly get a more relevant opinion from some breed experts on the forum. Some breeds are quite precocious and others quite slow.

Best wishes.

 

[OzGH]

Thanks for that, chooks4life!
No idea what breeds went into the mix, sorry. The parents are already mutts.
Sounds like my chances of keeping 4 pullets are not all that great...
Cheers,
Manu

 

[chooks4life]

Well, I'm more familiar with mutts myself than purebreds, but if I had to guess I'd think you've probably got some Barred Rock or similar, Buff and maybe also Black Orp's, Silkie (a good few generations past), Rumpless Ameraucana/Ameracuana (I see it spelt both ways, not sure what's right nor interested enough to find out at the moment lol), and White Leghorn or Cornish X and maybe Brown Leghorn genetics mixed up into that lot.

But that's just a guess, really there's many combinations of genes that can produce the same coloration, and even purebred-looking animals that are anything but.

I had a large fowl silkie mix who produced offspring quite like a lot of those, they had bantam traits minus the bantam size. If the photos aren't misleading they appear rumpless.

Best wishes.