Sexing partridge pattern chicks

[K0k0shka]

I know it’s still early (12 days old), but just out of curiosity... would anybody venture a guess as to the sex of these babies? Red Partridge Orpingtons from Papa’s Poultry. I’m worried that none of them look convincingly female

For context: they vary greatly in color and pattern, because the breeder is outcrossing to other colors of Orpingtons to improve the genetic diversity of the line. So these chicks range from yellow to red and various browns, and some have a distinct chipmunk pattern while others have no chipmunk patterning whatsoever. So they're throwing me off. Does this mean their feather patterning will be inconsistent as well? And less reliable for sexing? Or is the partridge pattern an all or nothing deal - they either have it and feather out correctly, or they don't?

I don't have a lot of experience with genetics and how patterns develop, so I'm curious to see what you guys think. I will also update this thread as the chicks grow, so that others might find it useful later on, to see how each color and pattern turned out.


Lemonade (weak chipmunk pattern):

Pooh (weak chipmunk pattern on head only, none on body):

Blinky (no chipmunk pattern at all). His wing feathers have the most black and least amount of patterning of all of them. He also has the most prominent comb, and the most prominent personality... Which are all bad signs

The Pretty One (with the most pronounced chipmunk pattern and high contrast feathers):

The Baby (has okay chipmunk patterning, but too much black on the feathers which isn't a good sign):

If anybody is female at all, I'm guessing Pooh and maybe the Pretty One, potentially maybe even Lemonade as well, if I'm being optimistic, but I doubt it. Lemonade is the least people-social of the bunch. Blinky and the Baby look male to me based on the wing feathers (and Blinky's comb and personality).

Let me know what you guys think!

 

[The Moonshiner]

They're too young to sex.
What are going by for your guesses?
Partridge is a specific pattern. Red partridge is the same pattern with mahogany.
All the variations they're showing is because they have other genes mixed in and aren't pure red partridge.

 

[K0k0shka]

They're too young to sex.
What are going by for your guesses?
Partridge is a specific pattern. Red partridge is the same pattern with mahogany.
All the variations they're showing is because they have other genes mixed in and aren't pure red partridge.

I'm going by how uniform the feather pattern is and how much black there is. Males have more black in larger patches, while females are uniform throughout. I do agree that they are very young, I'm just curious. Also, I wanted to start the thread now and include baby photos, and add more photos as they grow, including once they are full grown, for a fuller picture of how the pattern develops. Sort of like a study And then we can look back and see if any of my observations were even correct this early on, and if one can use the amount of black (or anything else) to try to guess early on. I think it would be interesting to observe.

 

[K0k0shka]

I'm especially curious to see what the amount of black means this early on, because I had a Red Partridge Orp from the same breeder last year who, at the exact same age, had very uniform patterning, but turned out male. He also had very pronounced "eyeliner", which I've read means pullet, but which was also not true in his case. Here he is at the same age:

Just 10 days later though, you can see he's starting to get the large black areas that are breaking up the pattern. A female at that age wouldn't have them, and would still look like his wing in the photo above, but all over.

 

[Auntiejessi3]

Beautiful babies! I'm so glad you posted pics! Definitely following this

 

[K0k0shka]

Beautiful babies! I'm so glad you posted pics! Definitely following this

Thank you! This is more of a log of the pattern development than anything else... I think it would be interesting to observe. But any input and guesses are definitely welcome!

 

[Auntiejessi3]

Thank you! This is more of a log of the pattern development than anything else... I think it would be interesting to observe. But any input and guesses are definitely welcome!

I'm way too new at the chick thing so I don't think I'd be of any help. Here to see cuties and learn

 

[Mellowmalt]

I'm still trying to figure out how to sex my dutch bantams and if I use the same judgement which could very well be a completely random guess I will say lemonade is male, blinky possibly could be and the others I will speculate are females. If you could update us in 2 months time that would be awesome

 

[K0k0shka]

I'm still trying to figure out how to sex my dutch bantams and if I use the same judgement which could very well be a completely random guess I will say lemonade is male, blinky possibly could be and the others I will speculate are females. If you could update us in 2 months time that would be awesome

I certainly will!

 

[Chicalina]

following for the education!