Please Help! Wyandotte Chick Sexing

[bellz15]

I have a pair of gold and silver laced wyandottes which are around 4 weeks old! I've been wanting to make this post for a while, but I know wyandottes are notoriously difficult to sex early so I made myself be patient. I think the consensus will be that it's still too early to tell, which is why I hope to update this as they get a bit older. I really need them to be hens if they are going to stay here. That's the short story so feel free to head straight to the pictures, otherwise here's the long story;

My uncle has a farm and we were lucky enough to take a couple of pullets home for egg layers (one black australorp and one I'm not sure about). I spent some time with them but they never seemed to warm up to me, and I really wanted to raise chicks from the start so they would be friendly. I did some research and automatically loved the pimped out and very snazzy looking wyandottes- also good layers and meat birds. I picked up these two and a wellsummer, which I'm near certain is a pullet. She is the most skittish and least friendly towards me, where the wyandottes are very sweet and love to climb all over me. The silver is the most confident and the first to try everything new- this chick seems most likely to be a cockerel to me. The gold always wants to climb up my shoulder and nest in my hair - Every day I go between convincing myself the gold is a cockerel, then pullet, then cockerel and so on. It's become an obsession! I even have a saved file of other young wyanottes which I constantly scrutinise. Please put me out of my misery! I appreciate any help, thanks in advance

 

[bellz15]

Hi Bellz15 just wondering if you ended up working out the gender of these chickies. Your silver looks a lot like a couple of mine and I'm holding out faint hope that not all are boys lol

Sorry I know this post is quite old now, but they are BOTH gorgeous pullets. I am so lucky. Hoping their progression may have helped someone I am hoping to hatch out some blue laced reds this weekend so may have another round of guessing! Such fun

 

[Frazzemrat1]

too soon to tell. Gotta wait until their at least 8 weeks.

 

[Ericapd]

Also, my SLW chicks are very bold girls. They fly all over me, jump out of the brooder and explore. They are super friendly and want to sit in my lap and climb in my hair. It just might be their personalities. Don’t worry too much!

 

[leia_and_friends]

Nice to see a fellow West Aussie on the forums!
They are both gorgeous! I know that feeling of absolute joy when a chick you've been obsessing about turns out to ACTUALLY be a pullet! We have a beautiful golden laced girl too (named Leia)... she's the one in my profile pic! Congratulations on raising two happy, lovely girls!

~ Jemima

 

[bellz15]

I think your Silver is a boy

Turned out to be a pullet actually, but I thought the same at the time!

 

[Ericapd]

They look like my SLW girls that are the same age. With my last chicks I raised, I noticed the cockerels had the tiniest combs since day one and then that area developed pink way earlier than the pullets. The pullets stayed yellow in the comb area until 12-14 weeks old too. This may vary with breed, but that was my experience.

 

[Ericapd]

I got mine from Atwood’s. I’m not sure how they sex them, but I’m sure they are correct. I can tell that mine are pullets based on the other chicks I have raised. Some were barnyard mix and I also raised some black australorps. They all seem to have similar development to me.

 

[Ericapd]

If you start seeing the top of the beak turning pink in the next few weeks, then it’s probably a cockerel, but they look pretty flat and yellow to me.

 

[Ericapd]

View attachment 1828213
Here are my girls, Poppy and Silvia for a comparison if that helps.