Rhodebar Chicks, 2 days olds...help with gender please (not following rules given)

[Lady of McCamley]

Okay...I just broody hatched 4 Rhodebars from hatching eggs purchased from a local breeder.

The breeder said look for head dots as the boys will have a head dot, however it can be too pale to see if the boy is light colored.

Other sites say the boys are yellow with no markings and the girls are chipmunks.

I have 2 clear chipmunks, no head dots (girls)
1 all yellow, no head dot (boy?)
1 yellow chipmunk (figures....girl???)

Thanks.
Lady of McCamley

(Sorry some of the photos are blurry, but I put in everything so that you could see as much of the chicks as possible...mom is very protective right now so it's hard to get clear shots)

 

[SampyArctica]

I would say that it's too early to tell at this stage, maybe post photos again in a month or two.

 

[dheltzel]

Not too early to tell, but too far away. If you put all 4 in a small box and snap a pic, we can help you better. Here is a pic of a female. My males just hatched and I haven't taken a pic yet. I'll see if I can get one soon. There is also an active Rhodebar thread. If you post the pics there, you'll get a fast response.

 

[dheltzel]

Here is a pic of my males, the 3 darker ones with white spots on their heads. The 3 orange ones are New Hampshires.
You can see the white spot on their heads and and any vestige of a dark stripe on their head is very indistinct compared to the female above. These are classic Rhodebar chick colors and very easily autosexable. Your yellow chick is has wheaten genes and that makes sexing pretty much impossible. You should only breed from chicks that are easily sexed at hatch because the autosexing trait is what really defines a Rhodebar, any chick that can't be easily sexed should be treated as a mixed breed and not considered a real Rhodebar, IMO. I don't want to question your supplier's ethics, they were probably bought as Rhodebars, but they should not be producing yellow chicks, ever.

 

[Lady of McCamley]

The Rhodebar breeder got back to me and says it looks like I've got 3 girls (the 2 dark chipmunks and the yellow chipmunk) and 1 boy (the yellow).

The yellow chipmunk girl will become a light red coloration with the Rhodebar hen pattern.

I wouldn't want to breed from anything but the darker chipmunks, but hey, I'm not breeding them...I'm into it for the eggs, and they are replacing some aging RSL's...so I'm totally good with a less than perfectly colored hen

Lady of McCamley

 

[dheltzel]

I think the yellow one has a 50% chance of also being a hen (wouldn't that be nice ?). I hope the others are hens as the breeder says.

 

[Lady of McCamley]

I think the yellow one has a 50% chance of also being a hen (wouldn't that be nice ?). I hope the others are hens as the breeder says.

Hah...wouldn't that be nice if that happened.

Yes, they should have head dots, which none have, to be male...but the breeder said with this line she is breeding (and yes perfecting to rid the wheaten) the yellows have always turned out to be boys while the yellow chipmunks have turned out to be girls...although there is risk of the other gender.


But hey, I'll take another hen if I get one

Thank you so much for your input.
Lady of McCamley