Sexing 5 week old chicks

[PeaceChick]

All 5 of them seem to be hens at 12 weeks old. Only the Andalusians had us a bit worried as their saddle feathering seemed to be a bit different. We keep checking on one particular one of them with the breeder. The breeder shows us his hens and they all have large combs and some type of saddle feathers. Apparently if the combs droop they are female and if they stand up straight they are male.

 

[PeaceChick]

One suspected rooster among altogether 5 chicks hatched. We took him back to the place we got the eggs and they said it looks like a rooster. One of the ways to tell was that the comb stands straight. It's an Andalusian. The female's comb flops over and is quite large as well. The female has more rooster type back feathering at this stage. Not what we normally are used to in guessing the sexes.

 

[PeaceChick]

Yes, but large and red combs and wattles at 6-8 weeks old are invariably males in most breeds.

4 of them are females. Only one Andalusian is a male.

 

[PeaceChick]

View attachment 1627309 View attachment 1627310 View attachment 1627311 View attachment 1627312 One suspected rooster among altogether 5 chicks hatched. We took him back to the place we got the eggs and they said it looks like a rooster. One of the ways to tell was that the comb stands straight. It's an Andalusian. The female's comb flops over and is quite large as well. The female has more rooster type back feathering at this stage. Not what we normally are used to in guessing the sexes.

Update: The Andalusian with the comb flopping over was a rooster contrary to what we had been told and the one we gave back to the breeder (which we got back for ourselves) so far is a Blue Australorp hen. We got confused because she had the same colouring as the Andalusian, and so we assumed we had two Andalusians. Wow! Andalusians sure can be tricky.

 

[PeaceChick]

View attachment 1627309 View attachment 1627310 View attachment 1627311 View attachment 1627312 One suspected rooster among altogether 5 chicks hatched. We took him back to the place we got the eggs and they said it looks like a rooster. One of the ways to tell was that the comb stands straight. It's an Andalusian. The female's comb flops over and is quite large as well. The female has more rooster type back feathering at this stage. Not what we normally are used to in guessing the sexes.

This ended up being a female Blue Australorp. We got the breed and sex wrong! We got her back.

 

[drumstick diva]

Blue Australorp female's are nice