Tips for sexing BOs and Marans?

[sophiejw]

One day I will hatch a breed of chicken that is easy to sex as a chick!

I have two Buff Orpington chicks aged about 5 weeks, and three Marans (one Black Copper, one Blue Copper I think) which are about a week old. I was just wondering if anyone had any tips on how to sex them?

Any thoughts much appreciated thanks

 

[smokeykk]

Pics????

 

[Bravo]

In my experience, around 3-4.5 weeks all of my Marans look like cockerels. Occasionally I will get a few cockerels that are early bloomers and get very big, red combs and wattles early on. By 5 weeks I can tell the boys from the girls on most--with a few others I have to wait longer.

If you want a breed you can sex at hatch, keep a Marans roo and breed him to a BR hen. You'll have sex-links that way and eliminate all of the guess work