Sexing Ancona chicks

[horselover1999]

I have a theory that I will be testing soon, I don't know exactly when, but soon. I am waiting on a breeder to get back to me about hatching egg or chick availability.

The last time I raised Ancona chicks, I noticed a pattern in their head coloring. Two of them had a large black dot after the stripe, and one had a tiny black dot under the stripe.
If you can see, the two on the left have larger head dots, and the one on the right has a small head dot.

I ended up with 2 roosters and 1 hen.

I will be testing this by putting leg bands on the ones I think are roosters.

 

[The Moonshiner]

Interesting.
I have hatched a lot of mottled chicks and noticed a lot of variation to the pattern on their heads but never tried to use it as a way to sex them.
Hope you follow through with this experiment.

 

[horselover1999]

I have been thinking about this pretty much since I got those birds several years ago, I am pretty sure I won't forget, and I posted this now as a reminder for myself.

 

[WingItRanch]

Interesting! I have an Ancona. Let me see if I can find a pic of her when she was little to help with your theory.

Here she is at a couple days old:

And here she is now at 9.5 months old.

 

[horselover1999]

I think it was whether there were 2 dots on the head or not instead of 1, I can test both theories. She does have 2 spots, though.