sexing 3 weekers: tail feathers or combs??

[PurplePoppiPpl]

i have 20 strait run chicks that are about 3 weeks... i can see that some of them are getting little baby combs those would be the roos i think but, some people have talking about just looking at the tails;large high tails would be roos. but after i looked closer i realized that some of them that have huge(compared to the other chicks) combs have almost no tail feathers and some that have really high, big tail feathers have no comb, so which one should i trust??

 

[ChicKat]

Hi Purple--

It's true that one of the first definite ways to tell a roo is the curved tail feathers - sickle feathers...I have see that in evidence before the rooster crowed...but way beyond 3-weeks, more like 3-months. Perhaps who ever told you to go by the tails was thinking of older chicks.

One thing that I have heard that would reinforce your conclusions that the big combs and smaller tails are roosters is that roosters feather slower. Hmmm Just watch the next poster will say they feather faster. If you have/get pictures it would help the BYC community help you to determine what you have in your straight run...and the more time that goes by the more sure the conclusions.