too soon to tell breed?

[Tricoglossus]

Feather sexing only works for certain breeds. If it were valid for every chicken hatcheries would not need vent sexers, sex linked breeds, and would be able to sex bantams.

X2. You will have to wait until they grow up to find out what sex they are.

 

[Rookie Raiser]

Ok thanks!!!

 

[chickenlver2013]

Also judging by the eyeliner of the Old English chicks, they look female.

 

[shmccarthy]

X2. You will have to wait until they grow up to find out what sex they are.

X3
Plus you would need to know the genetics of each parent bird and whether is was fast or slow feathering. You'd have to cross a fast feathering and a slow feathering parent, to get feather sexing chicks. It take a long time and a lot of patience and work to master

Your best bet is to wait until they are fully feathered out and post pictures again then.

 

[donrae]

http://animalsciences.missouri.edu/reprod/ReproTech/Feathersex/index.htm

It's amazing how many folks don't read the complete information on this site. It states it's only for specific crosses, not all chicks. Here's tadkerson's chart on feather sexing crosses.....

and the info...

Feather Sexing Chicks

Color sexing chicks can be a difficult task and is dependent upon the phenotype of the chick. If a chick does not have the correct down color, then you can not color sex the chick. There is a way of using another sex-linked trait to sex chicks based upon the size of the primary and secondary feathers on the wing of a newly hatched chick.

Feather sexing chicks can be accomplished by crossing males that are homozygous for rapid feather growth or carry two rapid feather growth alleles ( k+/k+) with females that are hemizygous or carry only one slow feather growth allele ( K/_W).

The female parent contributes a dominant gene for slow feather growth (K) to all the male offspring while the female offspring will inherit only one rapid feather growth allele ( k+) from the father. This cross produces males that have slow feather growth (K/k+) and females that have rapid feather growth (k+/_W).


The following site provides an excellent example of how to tell the difference between a rapid feathering female (pullet) chick and a slow feathering male (cockerel) chick. You have to examine the feathers on the wings of the newly hatched chick. Wait until the down dries and examine the wing feathers.

http://animalsciences.missouri.edu/reprod/ReproTech/Feathersex/sld006.htm


The table below contains some of the birds that can be crossed to produce chicks that can be feather sexed.

Any of the males in the table, can be crossed with any of the females in the table to produce offspring that can be feather sexed. If you purchased your birds from a hatchery, check with the hatchery to see if the hatchery feather sexed the birds you purchased. If your stock was feather sexed, then the chickens can not be used for feather sexing crosses.



That said, I know some folks swear by it and will come on with examples of when it's worked for them on chicks that don't meet the descriptions above. My thoughts are, great for you, but it's not scientifically backed up so be careful stating it's a legit, 100% method. If it were, vent sexers would be out of business and sexing could be much more accurate.