silver pied chicks

[country_girl011]

does anyone have pics of silver pied chicks around 2 months old.
id like to get a comparison of the males vs the females.
so i know what im looking for when i got to marvins and look at the chick.

 

[frenchblackcopper]

I have about 10 Black Shoulder Silver Pied chicks with about 10 more to hatch out,,but none that are 2 months old yet,,some are close tho,,that help at all?

 

[country_girl011]

Are you able to tell their sexes yet?

 

[frenchblackcopper]

I honestly havn't paid too much attention to them besides feeding and watering a few times each day.I do know next year I will have 2 pens of them,as I've got 8 e-mails from people wanting them.But you can bet within the next week or so I will,,I have maybe 8 or so getting too big for my dining room brooder box and it's time to move them out.I would thnk they too can be sexed early like Midnights and Opal b/s because the males will have darker colored area of feathers coming in,especially around their lower neckline.BSSP hens are beautiful,,at least the 3-4 that I have in respect to other b/s hens,,their rail feathers are black and their feathers on their backs looks "dusted' with black,,,I do think I've hatched out a few solid whites fro my BSSP pen,,,time will tell.I would add in your chicks,those showing any coloring besides on the wings-flight feathers would become males

 

[frenchblackcopper]

country_girl011,,I have about 5 BSSP peachicks now 3 weeks old in my brooder box,and I was looking closely at tonight and there is now a very noticable color diffrence in one of them,which to me indicates that one is a male,,they are not 2 months old,but only 3 weeks old this coming weekend,,and with a pic or 2 you will easily see the difrences between what I'm positive will be a male,and which one will be a hen.I've been trying for several weeks here to emphasize the unique diffrences in color that is noticable at a few weeks of age,compared to some saying it's impossible to sex B/S chicks until they are a few months old.I have 17 adult breeding Peas that are black shoulder so it's very easy for me not to be impressed at hatchtime since they are all yellow in color.The fun comes when you can start seeing the males change on a much more accelerated rate gaining that mottled look on their backs.BSSP males do not get this "mottled" look compared to my other b/s chicks and this is the first year I have been able to hatch significant numbers to compare daily.And today,18 days after hatching there is a significant diffrence.I can take pics if you would like?

 

[country_girl011]

country_girl011,,I have about 5 BSSP peachicks now 3 weeks old in my brooder box,and I was looking closely at tonight and there is now a very noticable color diffrence in one of them,which to me indicates that one is a male,,they are not 2 months old,but only 3 weeks old this coming weekend,,and with a pic or 2 you will easily see the difrences between what I'm positive will be a male,and which one will be a hen.I've been trying for several weeks here to emphasize the unique diffrences in color that is noticable at a few weeks of age,compared to some saying it's impossible to sex B/S chicks until they are a few months old.I have 17 adult breeding Peas that are black shoulder so it's very easy for me not to be impressed at hatchtime since they are all yellow in color.The fun comes when you can start seeing the males change on a much more accelerated rate gaining that mottled look on their backs.BSSP males do not get this "mottled" look compared to my other b/s chicks and this is the first year I have been able to hatch significant numbers to compare daily.And today,18 days after hatching there is a significant diffrence.I can take pics if you would like?

i would love to see pics.
i actually picked up the silver pied lastnight
not sure if its a girl. im pretty hopeful.
if not. well then i guess i have another male .

 

[frenchblackcopper]

Okay,if your having trouble identifying BSSP peachicks I think it would be easiest to see pics of adult BSSP first as an eample and you will notice one very distinct diffrence between a BSSP Peacock,,and an IB/BS Peacock.And for this reason alone is why I'm making the assumption on BSSP peachicks.I had to take a walk to Pea Palace and entice them with bread for an early am photo shoot,but Pipi the hen is never one to turn down some bread.Roadtrip likes chasing pieces on the ground but I was still able to get a couple of him.Here is a pic of both of these adults on the perch with their wings clearly visible.

 

[frenchblackcopper]

Now,heres two more pictures of both birds.Look very close at the flight feathers on both adults of the BSSP You will notice Pipi the hen has the rusty brown colored flights as evident in B/S hens.She fits the "type" very well and is a textbook example.

Now look closely at Roadtrips flight feathers.He DOES NOT have the usual rusty brown-tan flights as seen in IB/BS Peacocks,,Keep in mind you asked about sexing Pied peachicks and these are BSSP.And because of the BS pattern sexing peachicks seems to become easy because if the peachicks are male,they won't have the typical rusty brown or tan coloring coming in on their flight feathers early on.Their flights will or should stay white or a few black.Peachicks that will become hens should show the wing flight feathers change to tan or rusty brown because as an adult they will have them.

 

[frenchblackcopper]

These two pics of the same peachick in my opinion will become a peacock.There is no color diffrences noticable in the flight feathers.Although you can see spots on the body with areas of black feathers coming in,because of this visible patching has me betting this will be a male.Silver pied hens and males both will have blotchy areas of black-silver feathers but in the bssp pattern the hens lose these blotchy areas with all feathers on their bodies having a dusted with black appearance.Notice the cuticles in the flight feathers are still white in color meaning no change in pigment is going to start growing in as the bird ages.This chick is 19 days old.You will notice in the tail feathers in the bottom picture that the feather on the far right is showing black about 1/2 way thru the feather with the tip still yellow in color,,also proving my point that Peafowl feathers do change color AS THEY GROW.

 

[frenchblackcopper]

Now two pics of a BSSP peachick that I'm sure will become a hen.This reasoning is based on her wing feathers already showing the rusty brown feathers as evidenced in pics of Pipi the adult hen above.This seems to be just the opposite of how I sex B/S peachicks in Opal and Midight b/s chicks.In these two colors of B/S the males starts showing abrupt color changes.