Pullet or Cockerel

[ldelahanty]

I am a first time chicken raiser. We really are enjoying our chicks. They are five weeks old and we purchased 6 pullets. My 12 year-old son (and I) is raising the chickens for an independent study project on backyard farming and for 4-H. We have some suspicions that 2 of the 6 may be cockerels and this would be really sad because of zoning we can only have hens.
Can you take a look at them and tell me what your thoughts are? The white chick is a white rock and the other is a speckeled sussex (although I have never seen any with a white chest). She also has a larger comb, but it is not erect but looks like it fell down to the side. I do not see waddles on the SS but they are starting to develop on the white rock and I feel little bumps on her/his legs, but I feel them on all of our chicks. We have studied how to sex a chick over and over and are either stumped or believe that if we ask others with more experience they will tell us we are wrong.





This is Golden Eye She we suspect is a Pullet. She is a Red Sex Link, AKA ISA red.


This is Snow, we suspect she may be a he...


This is Olive We are not sure, she is the speckled sussex with the larger comb that looks crooked.The pic on the left is her at 4 weeks and the one on the right is at 5 weeks


The sussex with the white chest is Olive again, at 4 weeks.



These are both Marion and Snow. I added this pic to compare the 2. Marion (the suspected pullet is in front) Snow is the suspected Roo is in the rear



Last this is our Buff Orpington Pullet (we are really sure on this one)

Please help us to figure this out.
Thanks!
also you can visit us on FB at Hunter's City Chicken to see more pictures and video. We appreciate any help at all.

 

[Toshi]

Yeah Olive looks like a SS pullet, as for Snow he looks like a cockerel

Oh and Golden eyes, is a pullet too, sex links are sexed by color. so they know right when they hatch which is male and which is female. She is female

 

[ldelahanty]

Thanks, I hope that Olive is really a pullet. Crossing my fingers. Shame about Snow, but I am certain that we will be able to find him new digs soon. He is such a nice bird.

 

[Xovan]

Stopped by to have a look and well, I wish I could be some help. Hope yours turns out to be a pullet. We went to TCS to get 6 SR speckled sussex with the hope to get 2 pullets and ended up with 2 red sex link and 4 ss. I guess the wait goes on.Ours are about 3 weeks old.

 

[ldelahanty]

We have 6 and know that 4 are pullets, but I hope that Olive is not Oliver...we can't keep him if he is because of zoning. Hope that you have better luck next time. This is our first time with chicks and I really like all of ours. We especially love the our Buff Orpington. We are just learning, but maybe next year we will order from a breeder instead of our TSC, because of all of the trouble others have had and because all of ours were supposed to be pullets and one for sure is a roo and maybe 2. We are using them for 4-H and it is too late to start over. We may be able to get a variance until August, but don't know.

 

[Toshi]

Yeah thats the problem with TSC sometimes you get more then one pullet. And getting them from a breeder will not even your odds. Even with a sexed chick you still have 90% chance of it being what you wanted.

 

[ldelahanty]

This is an updated picture of Snow...

 

[Toshi]

Roo looks like anyways. See how big that cob is? How old is Snow?

 

[ldelahanty]

Snow is between about five weeks, give or take a couple of days. I think he is a roo, because of feathering, his comb and attitude. He is sweet but bossy.

 

[Toshi]

Lol yep sounds like a roo.