Russian Orloffs

[taprock]

I have been reading for a while but never posted. Orloffs have been my dream bird for 2 years. My crazy attempts to get them is a very long and costly story! I now have 4 orloffs that are just under 3 months old and 3 that are a month old. At what age can you begin to tell sex on them? I'm sure I have one roo and one hen but the other two, no idea. The younger ones I found and bought cheaply but with much disbelief they were orloffs so I'll wait and see.

Boris


Igor



Yuri


Natasha


Yuri and Natasha

 

[NCSprout]

It is great to see the interest and enthusiasm returning to this thread. There are some great resources for poultry genetics available to those who are interested.
This is a great site to start with: http://chickengenetics.edelras.nl/
I am always looking for ways to learn more about the genetics of the chicken. I have worked with plants for many years, but am relatively young with fowl. If I can help in any way, I would be happy to. If I don't know the answer then I will sure help find it.

Take care,
Ivy

 

[Ksane]

Taprock, they're beautiful. I love the white on Igor although I know too much white isn't desireable for showing or breeding. I happen to just like how it looks.
The 6 Orloff hens I've got were laying when I got them so I already knew they were girls. But I'm anxious to see if anyone answers your question as far as sexing because I've got the 8 tiny chicks coming this week. I ordered all pullets but I know that's not 100%. So the more information the better!
We do have a 6 wk old Orloff/Cuckoo Marans chick who's huge. He's beautiful! The only reason I think it's a boy is because of the size and his personality. The comb is completely flat still.

 

[NCSprout]

I wish I could point to a definite indicator of sex in Orloffs, but I have yet to find it. Often times the males will color up in the combs before the females, and in some of the ones I have the males were a bit slower to feather, but I don't believe this will be accurate for all strains.

 

[desertmarcy]

I raised about 35 chicks this year. I wasn't sure on sex until they were about 20 months old! I had a guy come over earlier this year to help show me how to sex chickens. He came from a family of poultry breeders and had been doing it all his life and was supposed to be very good at it. Well maybe for the large combed breeds, but when it came to the Orloffs, he was wrong on so many of them. I had my cockerels and pullets separated into two pens and he told me about 4 or 5 of the pullets were cockerels, so I moved them into the cockerel pen. Well a week later, I moved them right back again---they were pullets! He was also way wrong on sexing my Orloff/Ameraucana crosses. I'm glad I didn't just take his word for it and butcher the "boys". I kept them all until the males started to get reddish feathers on their shoulders, which for that cross is my first clue to telling the cockerels. He was right on about 50% of them. I could have flipped a coin and done as well

I hope as I get more experienced with the Orloffs I will be able to tell sex a little sooner. 20 months is a long time to wait.

 

[mississippifarmboy]

I wish I could point to a definite indicator of sex in Orloffs, but I have yet to find it. Often times the males will color up in the combs before the females, and in some of the ones I have the males were a bit slower to feather, but I don't believe this will be accurate for all strains.

I agree Ivy, they are one of the harder fowl to sight sex when young. The best I can do on sight sexing is watch the comb and tail. The combs are "usually" wider in males and the cockerels will have tails that are more cone shaped compared to the young pullets that have more of a teepee shape. Of course, once they get pointed hackle feathers it's a no brainer, but before then it's sort of a crap shoot on sight sexing.

But by far the simplest way to sex Orloffs is to vent sex if the sex really matters. I seldom sex ours because if they have an obvious culling fault they are going to get ate anyway regardless of sex and if not.... Only time will tell what they will look like after they molt.

I think vent sexing is a dying art though. Sorta sad.

 

[desertmarcy]

I think vent sexing is a dying art though. Sorta sad.

I wish I had someone here who would show me how to vent sex. I bought the Stromberg booklet on sexing chicks, had the page clipped open to the photos, bought a magnifying lamp to hold the chicks under since my eyes aren't very good with closeup, and had known male and female sexlinked chicks to work with----and I still couldn't do it. I just couldn't figure out what I was supposed to be looking at, getting all the poo away and holding a squirming screaming chick; managed to kill a couple in the process---I finally gave up. I've looked at photos on the Internet, etc. I think I just need someone RIGHT HERE to show me. Maybe I'll give it another try next time I hatch some sexlinks. It just can't be that hard! If anybody has some tips they can pass along, please do!

 

[mcrooke45]

I wish I had someone here who would show me how to vent sex. I bought the Stromberg booklet on sexing chicks, had the page clipped open to the photos, bought a magnifying lamp to hold the chicks under since my eyes aren't very good with closeup, and had known male and female sexlinked chicks to work with----and I still couldn't do it. I just couldn't figure out what I was supposed to be looking at, getting all the poo away and holding a squirming screaming chick; managed to kill a couple in the process---I finally gave up. I've looked at photos on the Internet, etc. I think I just need someone RIGHT HERE to show me. Maybe I'll give it another try next time I hatch some sexlinks. It just can't be that hard! If anybody has some tips they can pass along, please do!

Never tried vent sexing but here is how to tell day old chicks apart by their wing feathers.
Hope this will help.
Mark

 

[mississippifarmboy]

Never tried vent sexing but here is how to tell day old chicks apart by their wing feathers.
Hope this will help.
Mark

Feather sexing works great on those birds that are crossed so you CAN sex them that way. However most birds can't be sexed by day old wing feather length. Orloffs are one of those breeds that can't be feather sexed.

 

[desertmarcy]

Feather sexing works great on those birds that are crossed so you CAN sex them that way. However most birds can't be sexed by day old wing feather length. Orloffs are one of those breeds that can't be feather sexed.

Agreed. I tried, and they all feather sexed as females. As far as vent sexing being a dying art, judging by the numbers of people who have complained to me about their feed store (aka hatchery) "pullet" chicks becoming roosters, it seems even the people hired by the hatcheries to vent sex chicks are not doing that great a job.