Sexing pea combed birds

[mortie]

Here in a couple of weeks, I will be faced with the task of somewhat accurately sexing my true Amaeracaunas. I have read all I can about the subject of sexing pea combed birds but I thought I would ask here as well to see if I can get any additional advice.

I have read that chicks that develop 3 rows on a pea comb earlier are often males. Some of my chicks took much longer to feather than others and those seem to be the same ones that are growing little raisin looking combs. Are those two things together decent indicators of roosters? Any other tricks for this particular breed? Later I am going to go through them and band my suspected males. I've got 4 more weeks with them but the slower feathering ones are catching up with the others.

I also have some red chicks...not sure of the breed. They all look the same but about half of those were significantly slower to feather than the others. Other than that, I can't see any differences at this point. Do the males in the red breeds (RIR, Production red, etc) feather slower than the females?

Since I am so limited in the number of chickens I can have in town, I do need to get it right, and I can only keep males up to 8 weeks of age so in the next 3 and a half weeks I need to figure out who is who...

 

[mortie]

Anyone?

 

[RandR]

I wish I knew more about this. Something to consider is how would the city know your chicks are over 8 weeks? How would they know you had roosters if you couldn't tell? Roosters start crowing before they're full size so the crow isn't that loud which gives you some time to re-home them. I live in the city and had a young rooster for a week with no complaints.

 

[mortie]

I have one neighbor who is a big jerk so if there is any crowing the animal cops will be on my doorstep. You are right though and the city won't know how old the birds are I just don't need to rile up my jerk neighbor.

 

[Tricoglossus]

I have one neighbor who is a big jerk so if there is any crowing the animal cops will be on my doorstep. You are right though and the city won't know how old the birds are I just don't need to rile up my jerk neighbor.

Can you move the boys inside as a temporary measure until you can re-home them so that the noise can't be heard from outside?
Did you hatch the chicks yourself or get them from a breeder? You could always send photos to the breeder and ask them.
Also, why not post some photos on here, we can try to help you out!

 

[mortie]

I hatched them from eggs from a breeder. I asked her for tips today and she said she has a hard time telling with them too. She says she looks at their neck feathers but all ameraucana neck feathers look pointy to me. These are my first chickens ever. I'm not sure how long I could reasonably keep them in my garage, they are growing really fast! I will post pics on here I just need to take some.

 

[CGinJCMO]

Around 6-8 weeks we might be able to help you spot the boys if you can get photos of the comb and body.

CG

 

[mortie]

Ok

 

[mortie]

I've got pictures of them all, putting them in a different thread.