Sexing 10 day old chicks by wing & tail feather development?

[HennyPenny44]

I hatched out 6 Speckled Sussexes and 2 Lavender Orpingtons recently. I tried the wing feather sexing on day 2/3 and presumed I have one one LO girl, one LO boy and at least 4 SS girls (they were all running around and I lost track of who was who).

It’s day 10/11 and I’m seeing some major differences between chicks in the same breed. One of my LO chicks has longer looking wings with a lot of feathers and some tail feathers developing. The other has short, rounded, sparsely feathered wings with no tail feather development...mostly fluff. I want to presume the first is a girl and the second a boy. As for my SS, 5 have the same type of feather development as the first LO chick I think is a girl and only 1 has the short wings and no tail feathers I think comes with a boy. That would mean I have 6 girls and 2 boys which seems unlikely. But who knows?

Has anyone tried sexing chicks this way this early and did it work? I found info on this sexing technique here although they’re sexing Cochins and it supposedly only applies to certain varieties of Cochins. https://hanburyhouse.com/2013/07/23...cks-from-female-chicks-in-1-week-old-cochins/

Here’s some photos of mine:

Boy?

Girl?

Girl?

Boy?

 

[Folly's place]

Feather sexing is irrelevant unless their parents were selected to pass on that trait. So, you'll be right 50% of the time with this hatch.
Cute chicks though!
Mary

 

[HennyPenny44]

Feather sexing is irrelevant unless their parents were selected to pass on that trait. So, you'll be right 50% of the time with this hatch.
Cute chicks though!
Mary

Gosh darn it! Ok, I guess I can wait a bit longer. The suspense is killing me though!

 

[Tennessee Great Granny]

Vent checking can be wrong, but some folks get really good at it. It has to be done very early after hatching. If you are too rough you can injure the reproductive organs permanently. Wing feather checking and tail feather checking is still hit or miss. Chicks develop feathers at different rates. I wait until they are about a month on. The males will start to develop redder coloring to their combs and while they are still small combs the males will also have slightly bigger combs. The females I have raised seem to develop the red color to their combs about a week before they start to lay eggs. Still this is not perfect. Some males are a bit slower to develop, and so are some females. I had a female that could crow but didn't do it once we had a rooster. She also had a slightly larger comb than the other gals and waddles and spurs, but she laid eggs and was a very good momma. She literally broke off her own spurs so as to not injure her babies. The other hens laid so many eggs in her nest she had to have help incubating. She raised 32 babies at one time. Her kids loved her like crazy. She'd nestle down in one nest box with a portion of the chicks and then move on to the next nest box and got them settled and she would stay with the third set she nestled with. She taught them to huddle cuddle for warmth. I followed suit and started to teach my incubator hatched younger pullets and cockerels to cuddle huddle in the nursery nesting boxes when they first go outside without heat. It's freezing outside now so I'll keep my last batch of the season inside for a few more weeks just to help them develop more body fat and wean them to the cold. When they can go the nights inside without heat then they can go outside a few hours during the daytime. But I tell you with the babies born during cold snaps there's nothing cuter than to see a momma full of little chicks - some even riding on her back as she walks them inside of her feathers to the waterer and feed. They take turns going out to eat and drink and run back to momma quickly when they get cold.