Questions about sexing Orpingtons and Australorps

[TheBajan]

We have 6 lavender Orpington babies who where hatched two days ago. Looking at their wings (they are SOOO tiny) I think we have three boys and three girls. My question is can I do anything to be able to distinguish them going forward? My grand-kids have both girl names and boy names picked and I need to be able to tell them which is which. I was thinking about putting a tiny bit of nail polish on the girls toes. Is that harmful? Any other suggestions?

Regarding the Australorps... we have 5 babies (all girls we believe) who are now 15 days old. Four of them have very developed tail feathers and one of them still has no tail feathers at all. Is this an indication that this one might be a boy or does it mean something is wrong. All five came from TSC at the same time. This is a big deal because the chick in question is my grand-daughter's favorite and her name is Panda. If it's a boy, I need to let her know asap so she can change the name and not be too disappointed later if we have to re-home him.

Thanks in advance for your advice.

 

[mortie]

Put bands on their legs. I usually band the ones I think are male so I know to keep an eye on those.

 

[Sricher91]

Put bands on their legs. I usually band the ones I think are male so I know to keep an eye on those.

Where can you buy bands?

 

[Kessel23]

I'm not an expert on orpingtons or BAs but I did get 6 BA last spring from tractor supply, they were supposed to be all pullets but one took for ever to develop its tail and wing feathers, that one turned out to be a rooster.

The feather development speed is also different in hatchery quality RIRs, roosters feather slower than hens. I have gotten hundreds of RIRs form a few different hatcheries, mostly McMurray, over the years and the feathering speed trick always worked for them and allowed me to sex them at 2 or 3 weeks. I'm not sure if this would work for hatchery quality BA too. I know the feathering speed trick does not work with most breeds. I also hatched out several RIRs from eggs that I got from the hatchery quality birds and all of them did the slow/fast feathering thing too.

When sexing roos from a batch of chicks that was supposed to be all pullets you should look for misfits, this is how I found out about the RIR thing, I would get 50 RIRs every 2 years, all were supposed to be sexed pullets, I would notice 2 or 3 that were more husky than the others and had very little feather development, they would end up being roosters.

 

[TheBajan]

I'm not an expert on orpingtons or BAs but I did get 6 BA last spring from tractor supply, they were supposed to be all pullets but one took for ever to develop its tail and wing feathers, that one turned out to be a rooster.

The feather development speed is also different in hatchery quality RIRs, roosters feather slower than hens. I have gotten hundreds of RIRs form a few different hatcheries, mostly McMurray, over the years and the feathering speed trick always worked for them and allowed me to sex them at 2 or 3 weeks. I'm not sure if this would work for hatchery quality BA too. I know the feathering speed trick does not work with most breeds. I also hatched out several RIRs from eggs that I got from the hatchery quality birds and all of them did the slow/fast feathering thing too.

When sexing roos from a batch of chicks that was supposed to be all pullets you should look for misfits, this is how I found out about the RIR thing, I would get 50 RIRs every 2 years, all were supposed to be sexed pullets, I would notice 2 or 3 that were more husky than the others and had very little feather development, they would end up being roosters.

Thank you That's what I am seeing with this one. Smaller than the rest, more compact and slower growth of the tail and wing.

 

[Rachealx4]

I have 2 BOs that we think are cockerels. Both started feathering later and their tail feathers aren't as poofy as the girl's. Their comb had also started to turn pink, whereas my girls hasn't. They all are only about 4weeks.

 

[ChickNanny13]

You can also use the small (4") zip ties, don't make them snug and I avoid the color red. I've read the WalMart ones zips tend to slip, try the ones at Home Depot or Lowes .