Red sex links- Male or Female? PLEASE HELP!

[Cha Cha Chicken]

I got 2 red sex links (about 3 weeks old) that were supposed to be girls, but their heads are yellowish white. Their wings are also white, but there's some red coming in around the shoulders. So, what does a male chick look like? and are these male? because in that case, I'll have to get rid of them.

My computer has this weird thing with it right now and I can't upload pics..... sorry.

 

[hokankai]

Sounds like they're females. Mine started off with white wing feathers and then got her red ones. Female chicks are reddish/caramel in color, whereas males are much lighter and yellow.

Here's my Claire as a baby. I wasn't sure either until she started sprouting red feathers!

she's on the right <3

now she looks like this

 

[Cha Cha Chicken]

ours have lighter heads than her...... since I can't upload pix, I found this online that kind of looks like them, but ours have red around the hackle and some in the wings. one has a tannish red and the other has a darker red.:
http://www.google.com/imgres?q=red+...21&tbnw=148&start=0&ndsp=8&ved=1t:429,r:3,s:0

 

[hokankai]

If the chicks weren't yellow, they're not boys. 3 weeks is still very young and they won't have their adult feathering for quite some time. They'll have weird colored feathers until their other feathers come in, wait 5 weeks and if they are mostly white, then I would worry. but until they're fully feathered don't worry about it.

http://www.cacklehatchery.com/redsexlink.html

Here's what roosters look like
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4098/4808012877_9c13f83e5c.jpg

 

[donrae]

I've seen a lot of folks post on here where the red sex-links feather in white at first, then it changes to a gold then red. You'll just have to wait and see.

 

[Cha Cha Chicken]

I'll post some pictures......just give me until tomorrow to take them and upload them.

 

[jmtcmkb]

My red sex link "female" chicks ( 2 1/2 weeks) have white wings, I can see some red coming in on one of the chicks, but the main feathers so far are white and I have read this is normal.

 

[Fred's Hens]

Making definitive, generalized statements about "red sex links" is tough. There are many ways to make them. Different hatcheries and different back yard breeders use different strains of different breeds for both of the parent stock. They just don't turn out uniformly the same.

When you breed a red(gold) rooster over a white(silver) hen, the object is, of course, to get chicks easy to sex at hatch. There are many factors that can blur the results. A few of the chicks are just a bit harder to distinguish than usual.

 

[Jschaaff]

Fred's Hens :

Making definitive, generalized statements about "red sex links" is tough. There are many ways to make them. Different hatcheries and different back yard breeders use different strains of different breeds for both of the parent stock. They just don't turn out uniformly the same.

When you breed a red(gold) rooster over a white(silver) hen, the object is, of course, to get chicks easy to sex at hatch. There are many factors that can blur the results. A few of the chicks are just a bit harder to distinguish than usual.

Thank you for the info. Good stuff! Especially for us newbies who are trying to suck all the expertise and info out of you more experienced chicken owners! I really enjoying learning about the sex-links. Ty!​

 

[Ridgerunner]

I agree with Fred. It purely depends on which breeds were used to make the sex links. Depending on which breeds were used to make the parents, it can sometimes be real hard to tell male/female chicks apart. With some crosses, you practically have to have males and females side by side to see the difference or really have experience with them. The males are yellowish. The females are reddish. It is not always a pure bright yellow or a bright dark red. If you know what breeds were used to make them, that could help us quite a bit.

And remember, the sex link colors relate to down color more than feather color. I raise mutts. Often the final feather color is quite a bit different from down color. With my last batch, most chicks looked pretty yellowish when they hatched but most of them turned out very red in the adult colors.

I don't know where you got them. If you got them from a hatchery, you should be real safe. If you got them from a feed store, you still should be fairly safe, but there is always a little less certainty because more people have handled them so there is more of a chance of a mistake. Still, your odds from a feed store should be pretty good. If you got them from someone that breeds their own, it depends on the ability and knowledge of that individual.