Sexing 3 Month Old Buff Orpingtons

[Wizzo1257]

I got the eggs from Meyer Hatchery on January 30th so they must of hatched late February.

I can’t have roosters so I’m going to process them.

Can I go by the ones that have combs and wattles or can they be hens?

Any help would be appreciated.

 

[FrostRanger]

Individual pictures would be better as it's hard to see everything going on with that many

 

[Wizzo1257]

Individual pictures would be better as it's hard to see everything going on with that many

If you can sex them from an individual picture I’ll do that. Can you?

 

[Wizzo1257]

If you can sex them from an individual picture I’ll do that. Can you?

I didn’t expect anyone to sex them from the pictures. I just wanted to know if hens could have the same combs and wattles as roosters at this age.

 

[Mother of Chaos]

I didn’t expect anyone to sex them from the pictures. I just wanted to know if hens could have the same combs and wattles as roosters at this age.

It's handy that you have all one breed and color here. It's not as confusing as when you're comparing one breed that pops out combs and wattles quickly vs another that doesn't.

In my very amateur way, I've gotta say the chicken in back on the right has very impressive comb and wattles for this age! (15 weeks in 2 days.) Not all the others' heads show, but this one I'd keep an eye on.

 

[Mother of Chaos]

-by the way, your question might do better on the "What Breed or Gender Is This?" subforum.

If you'd like it to be moved there, keeping all the current posts, you can hit the Report button on the bottom left of your first post. In the pop-up box, you can type your request.

It's a lovely flock!

 

[NatJ]

I got the eggs from Meyer Hatchery on January 30th so they must of hatched late February.

I can’t have roosters so I’m going to process them.

Can I go by the ones that have combs and wattles or can they be hens?

Any help would be appreciated.

The ones with the biggest, brightest combs & wattles are probably males.

You may be getting close to the point when pullets start getting big red combs too, but even a mature hen has a smaller comb than a male of the same age & breed.

Have you heard any of them crowing? If so, the crowers are males. That's a way to check some of them.

If you're going to process them, I suggest you do them one by one, working from the biggest comb on down the line, and check each bird for testicles (white bean-shaped things up inside the center of the back, against the spine). Each time you find testicles, you know that one was male.

If you find one with no testicles, but a cluster of egg yolks forming in that area, you know it was a pullet. If you started with the big-comb birds and worked your way down, at that point you can be pretty sure that all the rest are females. I've done this when I was unsure of my sexing on some chickens: it reassures me about each male I correctly identified, and if I am wrong on one it makes me stop before I kill any other females.

If you can sex them from an individual picture I’ll do that. Can you?

For the picture in that post, I think the one in the back right with big comb & wattles is male. I think all the other heads in the photo are probably female. Or else some are males that are being very slow in their development (possible but not too common.)

 

[Wizzo1257]

The ones with the biggest, brightest combs & wattles are probably males.

You may be getting close to the point when pullets start getting big red combs too, but even a mature hen has a smaller comb than a male of the same age & breed.

Have you heard any of them crowing? If so, the crowers are males. That's a way to check some of them.

If you're going to process them, I suggest you do them one by one, working from the biggest comb on down the line, and check each bird for testicles (white bean-shaped things up inside the center of the back, against the spine). Each time you find testicles, you know that one was male.

If you find one with no testicles, but a cluster of egg yolks forming in that area, you know it was a pullet. If you started with the big-comb birds and worked your way down, at that point you can be pretty sure that all the rest are females. I've done this when I was unsure of my sexing on some chickens: it reassures me about each male I correctly identified, and if I am wrong on one it makes me stop before I kill any other females.


For the picture in that post, I think the one in the back right with big comb & wattles is male. I think all the other heads in the photo are probably female. Or else some are males that are being very slow in their development (possible but not too

The ones with the biggest, brightest combs & wattles are probably males.

You may be getting close to the point when pullets start getting big red combs too, but even a mature hen has a smaller comb than a male of the same age & breed.

Have you heard any of them crowing? If so, the crowers are males. That's a way to check some of them.

If you're going to process them, I suggest you do them one by one, working from the biggest comb on down the line, and check each bird for testicles (white bean-shaped things up inside the center of the back, against the spine). Each time you find testicles, you know that one was male.

If you find one with no testicles, but a cluster of egg yolks forming in that area, you know it was a pullet. If you started with the big-comb birds and worked your way down, at that point you can be pretty sure that all the rest are females. I've done this when I was unsure of my sexing on some chickens: it reassures me about each male I correctly identified, and if I am wrong on one it makes me stop before I kill any other females.


For the picture in that post, I think the one in the back right with big comb & wattles is male. I think all the other heads in the photo are probably female. Or else some are males that are being very slow in their development (possible but not too

I haven’t heard them crowing at first light but if a noise startles them one might let a half of a crow out but I’ve never been watching them at the time.

Going down the line was kind of my plan. Good thing you reminded me to verify each with the testicles.

Looks like I will have 6 males to 12 females. Does something like incubation temperature make that ratio so?

 

[NatJ]

Looks like I will have 6 males to 12 females. Does something like incubation temperature make that ratio so?

Probably not.

Temperature does determine the sex of some reptiles, but not the sex of chickens. Chicken sex is determined by sex chromosomes (zz male, zw female, so the mother determines the sex of each chick.) I think all birds do it that way.

I've read that incubation conditions can sometimes kill one sex more than the other, so if you had a bunch of eggs that did not hatch, that might explain the unusual male/female ratio you have.

But most likely, it's just a case of random chance working in your favor

 

[Wizzo1257]

I breed red footed tortoises. I don’t temperature sex my guys though. Only had a couple duds so it must of been a random chance working in my favor or as I like to call it good luck.