Silver Penciled Plymouth Rocks

[msteresaann]

I have hatched the cutest chicks, but I have two very different colors. I was wondering if they can be sexed by the color?
Both have the brown/black chipmunk stripes, but one is a dark reddish brown and the other is grayish.


Oh, and I want to give a shout out to PeepsInc; these chicks came from eggs that traveled 2,600 miles and all arrived safe and sound.

Thanks Chris, we love the Fluffy Butts.

 

[Happy Chooks]

They cannot be sexed at hatch. But once their chest feathers come in they can be sexed. The males will be more black in their chest, and the females will have the penciling in their chest. (more silver less black)

I have a great picture showing the difference, but I can't upload right now due to internet service problems.

 

[Happy Chooks]

I was able to upload a picture!

Cockeral on the left, pullet on the right.

 

[msteresaann]

Thanks, new2chooks

Just wishful thinking on my part. There was just such a difference in color

I got to hoping.

Chick 1

Chick 2

 

[Happy Chooks]

Hmmmm, mine weren't that light. Here's what mine looked like at a week old.

And as a day old:

 

[Bantimna]

The chick in the second pic. looks male to me

 

[Iggygirl]

This photo was very helpful with sexing my chicks, now I know what to look for when my 4 silver penciled rock chicks start feathering out in the chest!

 

[purplesquirrel]

May I ask how old they are here?
Mine look like males but they have plumage similar to your female...:/

 

[BullChick]

I am here, so apparently people still find this looking for an answer. My chicks looked like yours, msteresaann. Four bigger light ones, and two smaller dark ones. The smaller are girls. I also have three boys. So only one light one was a girl. I am told by the person I received the eggs from, that this is common in her line. Apparently, it does happen that you can sometimes (SOMETIMES) guess at birth based on color.
I have 18 due to hatch in under a week. We will see what happens this time.

 

[Egghead_Jr]

The color difference at hatch is by chance. There can be a hatch with predominant light males due to parentage but it's not a sexable trait. I've had no sex link to color in two years of hatching them. In reality the dark birds are not as desirable. They will grow into birds with brownish hue and are typically smutty in pattern, not to discount those birds from the get go, as one could have great type and pencil so worth breeding forward ,but your silver parents will come from silver chicks. If the parents were from silver chicks there is a low percent of brown chicks. My last batch was something like three brownish to dozen silver.

There is a lot of inter variety breeding with the two penciled (partridge and silver). This I believe adds to the high percent brown hue in females and autosomal red in males. Both of these traits should be culled out from your breeding efforts. It's said such crossings will take three years to clean up the silver. The problem is it's done more frequently than you'd think and not subsequently cleaned up properly before passing on eggs. The autosomal red (brassy hackle, saddle and especially shoulder feathers) and brownish hue of hens was apparent in this variety a century ago. It's inherent to the variety but a fault that should be guarded against not exacerbated by crossing to Partridge willy nilly.