Polish Chick Sexing (5 weeks)?

Marleeschicks

Chirping
May 28, 2023
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I have 2 polish chicks that I am pretty sure are 5 weeks old (feel free to send guesses). Got them a few weeks ago. am honestly not a fan of the breed as we haven’t had the best luck —already rid of a GL roo at around 11 weeks old.
Wanted a silver laced so bad and they are hard to find here. Our oldest we are rehoming because it’s just basically feral. 😂😆
I am guessing the white one is pullet as it is most tame.. though gets over run and spooked by the other 2. Any gender guesses on these two chicks?
Also have no idea if our white colored one is a buff laced or a white. Quite pink in the beak and legs so assuming white…was supposed to be buff😂
@BastyPutt I have heard u are good at this game!?
 

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am honestly not a fan of the breed as we haven’t had the best luck —already rid of a GL roo at around 11 weeks old
Oh no! This is too bad! I have noticed a lot of folks have more cockerels than pullets from hatcheries, which is odd because they are primarily hatched straight run. From our Polish "herd" here, we are usually about 60/40 pullets cockerels.

Your guess on age is a pretty good ballpark. Id guess closer to 5 weeks.

Your white appears to be white, not buff as you seem know already. You'd see some buff showing up in its juvenile feathers already. Most of the whites I see are bearded - this one still could be. You would see this in the next few weeks if so.

It is a tough age to gender, but using what we have here... I'm going to say you have two chickens here that will never lay an egg..... cockerels.

if the black one is an SL, that is a certain cockerel. You'd see more white in a pullet SL, even in juvenile feathers. If not, (and maybe a mottled?? Not enough white for that either though) I'm 70% sure on this one.

The white one I'm about 80% certain. On either bird, there aren't any feathers growing outward on the crest, more of a Mohawk, which will always lean cockerel. The black also has very thin initial crest feathers, which is another strike.

If you don't see wattles beginning to develop in the next three weeks on both of them, I'm likely wrong. However, if you do - that will be the nail in the coffin 😉
 
Oh no! This is too bad! I have noticed a lot of folks have more cockerels than pullets from hatcheries, which is odd because they are primarily hatched straight run. From our Polish "herd" here, we are usually about 60/40 pullets cockerels.

Your guess on age is a pretty good ballpark. Id guess closer to 5 weeks.

Your white appears to be white, not buff as you seem know already. You'd see some buff showing up in its juvenile feathers already. Most of the whites I see are bearded - this one still could be. You would see this in the next few weeks if so.

It is a tough age to gender, but using what we have here... I'm going to say you have two chickens here that will never lay an egg..... cockerels.

if the black one is an SL, that is a certain cockerel. You'd see more white in a pullet SL, even in juvenile feathers. If not, (and maybe a mottled?? Not enough white for that either though) I'm 70% sure on this one.

The white one I'm about 80% certain. On either bird, there aren't any feathers growing outward on the crest, more of a Mohawk, which will always lean cockerel. The black also has very thin initial crest feathers, which is another strike.

If you don't see wattles beginning to develop in the next three weeks on both of them, I'm likely wrong. However, if you do - that will be the nail in the coffin 😉
Ha u are awesome 😄 I really appreciate the insights.
I am actually quite surprised to hear ur thoughts on the white! (While I can’t say I’m surprised to hear about my SL because.. while this is not a for sure indicator by any means .. my GL had the exact same hairdo that age lol).
As sad as it is to say, I am fine with losing these guys if that is what happens. More room for my new ameraucana lol! If these 2 end up Roos…. I got probably the all time worst ratio 😂 we are down to 3-4 for sure hens out of 10 chicks. This will make 3-4 hens out of 13😭 Though we got three Polish planning to keep 1.
Now that said, we priced together 4 diff groups from different places so I was worried it would affect that 50/50 ratio ..
ANYWAY! I really thankyou for the insights! 🙏🏼 Will post an update (and hopefully find a home for 1 or 2) by next time 😆
 
I hope you can eventually have a few little Polish ladies. Although I don't like to stereotype breeds, even this one that I love so much, I always say the Polish hens here are the chickens with the most personality and emotion. They aren't very good layers, or good for anything else really - you have to trim their eye feathers - higher maintenance - and the roosters are really, really dumb and are constantly - and I mean CONSTANTLY - trying to breed. We had one that was chasing my youngest son around when he was 2. We would always smack him away because we thought he was going to attack him. However, one time he caught up to him and he tried to mount his leg! It was laughing too hard to function. It was terrible.

But! I do love them, I couldn't imagine not having them!
 

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