Sexing 6 week old Black Copper Marans! Help!

[chickity-chick]

Get ready for a lot of pictures!! I have 2 BCM chicks both 6 weeks and some change but there are some pretty big differences between the two and I am so confused as to which one is a pullet and which could be a little roo. I’m hoping for two pullets! Im a first time chicken owner so sexing is really difficult for me! I would appreciate any help anyone can give me. Sniffles is a lot bigger and heavier that Poppy, also I believe sniffles has bigger feet than poppy as well. However comb is a light pink and yellow at the top and so are wattles. But they are reddish too just not as red as Poppys? Sniffles has slight copper at the neck but very very slight and on only 2 feathers. Sniffles had late tail feather development when younger and has always had a "rounder" tail as you can probably tell bellow. When Sniffles was little the tail had lots of "fluffs" but not feathers then when feathers did come in there weren't a lot and it held on to a lot fo the "fluffs if you know what I mean. Sniffles has always had fluffier feathers that fluff up a lot. Sniffles will often times fluff his/her feathers and make them stand up a bit. Poppy is smaller than Sniffles. Poppy has a redder comb and redder waddles, but they are pretty red in my opinion. Poppy has gold feathers at the neck and has started getting some gold in the wings. Poppy is a sweet chicken so temperament I haven’t really seen much aggression. Poppy and sniffles have flown into each other and bumped chests before but it’s not frequent and I don’t really know if this is a sign or not because my two for sure red sex link pullets have done these too. Sniffles is the more aggressive one in comparison to Poppy but neither of them are actually aggressive. (The other two chickens seen in the background are Lucille and Dixie and they are red sex link pullets. Thank you again everyone who can help me!

Sniffles (Subject #1):
View attachment 2186686View attachment 2186688View attachment 2186691View attachment 2186692View attachment 2186707View attachment 2186696View attachment 2186698View attachment 2186704View attachment 2186709View attachment 2186745

Poppy (Subject #2):

View attachment 2186724View attachment 2186726View attachment 2186732
View attachment 2186748You can see the gold in neck here a bit.
View attachment 2186752Funny picture but it shows the waddles. View attachment 2186756View attachment 2186758View attachment 2186772View attachment 2186773View attachment 2186776You can kinda see the faint gold bellow the white spot on the right. It is like gold speckles coming in on the wing feathers. This just began coming in this week



The two together:
View attachment 2186728Sniffles on the right and Poppy on the left. You can see how much bigger Sniffles is.

View attachment 2186736Sniffles top right. Poppy top left.


View attachment 2186746Sniffles left. Poppy right.

View attachment 2186762Poppy left. Sniffles right. You can really see the size difference and comb color difference here.
View attachment 2186764Same with here. Poppy left, Sniffles right.



Some baby pictures of the two at around two and a half weeks-ish old: Also they did not always stay on the pink flower mat that was just for pictures.
View attachment 2186713Sniffles is on the right and Poppy is on the left eating out of the feeder. You can see how much rounder and fluffier Sniffles tail and back feathers are compared to Poppys.



View attachment 2186715 This is Poppy doing a wing stretch. Im not sure if anyone could use the feather information to help with sexing.

View attachment 2186717Sniffles on the Left facing backwards and Poppy on the right showing us his/her adorable little front. You can see here how Sniffles was bigger than Poppy as well as the state of how Sniffles feathers grew in which was different than Poppys.

View attachment 2186721Another feather growth visual. Poppy on the bottom and Sniffles on the top.

View attachment 2186722Just a cute Poppy picture because I couldn't resist.


Thank you everyone who can take the time to help me with this! I really appreciate it! Also the chicken were bought at my neighborhood feed and seed store so I did not hatch them and I do not know anything about their parents or if they are even related. The feed store said that they were sexed female with 90% accuracy but I just don't know they look so different! Thank you!

 

[chickenlittle21]

They both look like roosters

 

[chickity-chick]

They both look like roosters

Thank you! Keep the opinions coming everyone! I would love as many opinions as possible! Thank you for your help!

 

[LaFleche]

To me both look like pullets as BCM cockerels show much bigger and far more coloured combs and wattles at six + weeks.

At this moment I have several BCM chicks 5+ weeks of age and my pullets look quite the same. I even have one pullet affected by delayed feathering, looks just like your Poppy.

Edit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delayed_feathering_in_chickens

 

[Painted Calls]

I also see two pullets. Cockerels of the same age would have much larger wattles.

 

[chickity-chick]

To me both look like pullets as BCM cockerels show much bigger and far more coloured combs and wattles at six + weeks.

At this moment I have several BCM chicks 5+ weeks of age and my pullets look quite the same. I even have one pullet affected by delayed feathering, looks just like your Poppy.

Edit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delayed_feathering_in_chickens

So is the gold on the wings a pullet quality too? I was under the impression that was only found in roosters? Thank you for your reply, I really hope they are both pullets!

 

[LaFleche]

This was one on my BCM cockerels and you can see quite well where exactly the telltale red feathers on the wings show:

 

[LaFleche]

So is the gold on the wings a pullet quality too? I was under the impression that was only found in roosters? Thank you for your reply, I really hope they are both pullets!

This pullet might not be of pure black copper heritage, there could have been some ancestor of other colouring, as for instance light brown partridge (saumon doré).

Edit: http://www.marans.eu/saum.htm

 

[Spittingfeathers]

So is the gold on the wings a pullet quality too? I was under the impression that was only found in roosters? Thank you for your reply, I really hope they are both pullets!

I have bred quite a few CBM and they are allways pure black for the Hens and with Copper feathers in the Cock.

 

[Painted Calls]

I have bred quite a few CBM and they are allways pure black for the Hens and with Copper feathers in the Cock.

Welcome to BYC!

You mean BCM? Hens should have the copper color too.