Sexing mixed Bantam chicks

[Keeperofmunchkins]

I've had a lot of bantam chicks over the years and have found that some of them can be sexed as early as a few days old, and the majority by four weeks. Then there are those tricky few that keep me guessing longer.

I have two at the moment I'm unsure of. They are now 6 weeks and 4 days old. The black one is a cross of Barbu d'Anvers and Pekin Bantam. The other greyish one is a cross of Sebright and Pekin Bantam.

When they were very small my instinct was that both of them were pullets, but by around 4 weeks, they both had suspicious pinkness in the combs. The greyish chick also has the first signs of wattles growing. I started to think they were cockerels for sure.

However, in the past couple of weeks the combs have not changed or grown much and the greyish chick's comb is still pink rather than red. The black chick's rose comb is very flat apart from the pointed tip. The greyish chick has a very strange kind of comb that is baffling me.

Now I don't know what to think!

 

[chrissynemetz]

I think I'm leaning more toward pullets from the pictures.

 

[RoostersAreAwesome]

Nothing says cockerel to me yet, but they’re much too young to be sure.

 

[Besotted]

Are they acting like roosters? (First to check out the new thing, stopping to look all around like prairie dogs, chest bumping/play fighting).

If not, I think you might have pullets. But then again, my Delaware bantam roo just crowed for the first time, a few days shy of 4 months-so that left me with one pullet and 4 cockerels from that batch. :-/

I’m starting to realize why people get large batches for straight runs-my next group of 8 is a week old, and I am certain I have 3 roos, and as many as 5. Sigh.