Welsummer pullet?

[Poodlemum]

After seeing a post, I’m now paranoid my little Wellie is not a pullet The feed store I got her from only buys pullets, but there is always that small margin of error

 

[TheOddOneOut]

Too early.

 

[ChickNanny13]

Repost pictures when your chick is at 6 - 8 wks old, too young just yet

 

[Allsfairinloveandbugs]

Welsummers are auto-sexing as day old chicks. I've purchased Welsummer straight-runs many times and always ended up with females. Females have a much darker and defined eyeliner than males, and the stripes on their heads and backs are much darker and defined than males too. Male eyeliner and stripes are lighter in color and somewhat "blurry" by comparison. Sometimes (not always) the down on backs of males will appear grayish, while females will be obviously brown. When you look at a group of straight-run Welsummers that have just arrived from a hatchery, the difference is obvious.

In your photos, the chick's eyeliner and head stripe appear dark and defined enough to be a female. You didn't show your chick's back stripes, but if they are also dark brown and well-defined, you can rest easy that is a female chick you are holding in your hand.

 

[Poodlemum]

Welsummers are auto-sexing as day old chicks. I've purchased Welsummer straight-runs many times and always ended up with females. Females have a much darker and defined eyeliner than males, and the stripes on their heads and backs are much darker and defined than males too. Male eyeliner and stripes are lighter in color and somewhat "blurry" by comparison. Sometimes (not always) the down on backs of males will appear grayish, while females will be obviously brown. When you look at a group of straight-run Welsummers that have just arrived from a hatchery, the difference is obvious.

In your photos, the chick's eyeliner and head stripe appear dark and defined enough to be a female. You didn't show your chick's back stripes, but if they are also dark brown and well-defined, you can rest easy that is a female chick you are holding in your hand.

This is what I thought, thank you for confirming. Let me get some pics of the back. She’s lighter than my Barnevelders, but didn’t want to compare different breeds

 

[Poodlemum]

If the light is too distracting, I can pop her out after I get the kids in bed

 

[Allsfairinloveandbugs]

Thats a pullet!

 

[Poodlemum]

Thats a pullet!

Oh thank goodness! Thanks for taking the time to relieve my worry!

 

[Allsfairinloveandbugs]

Oops Im sorry, but i need to re-reply. My internet signal right now is very poor, & it took quite a while before your latest photo loaded. When it finally did, i didn't notice you had circled one; I was looking at the chick in top right of photo. The one you circled Does look more ambiguous than the other two. I think the markings are dark and defined enough to be a pullet, but not as obvious as the other two in photo. Since it was autosexed by the hatchery, hopefully they were right. (They certainly see a lot of welsummer chicks at hatch.) But if you ever get straight run Welsummers again, choose the obvious pullets same as the two in right of photo. I apologize for this post dashing your confidence, but yes you will need to watch and wait a few weeks to know for sure. And please update this thread when you know the chick's gender. If nothing else, I would like to know if the hatchery got it right.

 

[Poodlemum]

Oops Im sorry, but i need to re-reply. My internet signal right now is very poor, & it took quite a while before your latest photo loaded. When it finally did, i didn't notice you had circled one; I was looking at the chick in top right of photo. The one you circled Does look more ambiguous than the other two. I think the markings are dark and defined enough to be a pullet, but not as obvious as the other two in photo. Since it was autosexed by the hatchery, hopefully they were right. (They certainly see a lot of welsummer chicks at hatch.) But if you ever get straight run Welsummers again, choose the obvious pullets same as the two in right of photo. I apologize for this post dashing your confidence, but yes you will need to watch and wait a few weeks to know for sure. And please update this thread when you know the chick's gender. If nothing else, I would like to know if the hatchery got it right.

The other two are Barnevelders I will definitely come back to update!