I have a different twist on the 'is it a boy or a girl' question.
Right now I have a dozen birds that are 9 weeks old and doing well. For the most part, I know their gender with the exception of one that has the body and feathers of a hen but the comb and wattle of a rooster. I'm hoping it will turn out to be a hen because I REALLY need extra hens right now as two of my chicks that were supposed to be hens turned out to be roos.
I was at the local feed store yesterday looking at their chicks that were left from their spring chick sales and saw that they had RIR chicks that looked to be 3-4 weeks old as they were more than 50% feathered out and quite healthy looking. They were only 2.97 apiece.
The only thing that made me hesitate was that they were straight run and I've never sexed RIRs before so it would basically be a crap shoot for me. The last thing I need is more roosters, but these chicks looked to be half the age of our flock and would only need to be weaned off the heat lamp before they could join the rest of our birds.
Any experienced RIR folks out there who could give me some tips on sexing 3-4 week old chicks, I'd be grateful for the help.
Do you think I should just bite the bullet and try to pick out two or three pullets and if I do, how do I bend the odds in my favor so I choose pullets and not roos. Our boys are getting along really well at the moment and I don't want to rock the boat with a male RIR with more attitude than I need to deal with.
Right now I have a dozen birds that are 9 weeks old and doing well. For the most part, I know their gender with the exception of one that has the body and feathers of a hen but the comb and wattle of a rooster. I'm hoping it will turn out to be a hen because I REALLY need extra hens right now as two of my chicks that were supposed to be hens turned out to be roos.
I was at the local feed store yesterday looking at their chicks that were left from their spring chick sales and saw that they had RIR chicks that looked to be 3-4 weeks old as they were more than 50% feathered out and quite healthy looking. They were only 2.97 apiece.
The only thing that made me hesitate was that they were straight run and I've never sexed RIRs before so it would basically be a crap shoot for me. The last thing I need is more roosters, but these chicks looked to be half the age of our flock and would only need to be weaned off the heat lamp before they could join the rest of our birds.
Any experienced RIR folks out there who could give me some tips on sexing 3-4 week old chicks, I'd be grateful for the help.
Do you think I should just bite the bullet and try to pick out two or three pullets and if I do, how do I bend the odds in my favor so I choose pullets and not roos. Our boys are getting along really well at the moment and I don't want to rock the boat with a male RIR with more attitude than I need to deal with.