When and How to tell my chicks are hens and not roosters?

[NP Farmers]

I have just recently gotten into back yard chickens. This past week I got 2 black sex links and 2 black australorps. I was curious as to when i will be able to tell whether they are all hens or if one is a rooster. they both came from sexed batches but the reason I am concerned is because where I live I am not able to have a rooster nor do I want one. Any information will help. The black sex links are 6 days old and the black australorps are 2 1/2 weeks

 

[sheena85]

if i am not mistaking the roo's will have a white spot on the top of there head...the black sex-link's don't hold me to it but thats what i fould when i looked it up...hope this help's and i hope someone else will come along and help also

 

[Tiramisu]

Males will have barred feathering once they start to feather out. I would think with sex links though, they should be able to sex them right if males almost always have a white spot on the top of their head.

 

[gardendufus]

I think it's hard to say exactly when, but I ended up with both a BA Pullet and a cockerel. Here's my experience. I could tell by about 5 weeks that one of my chicks was developing both a comb and wattle that were much more reddish than my other BA or any of my other chicks.

Here's a pic of my cockerel at 6 weeks a little out of focus.........but:



Here's my pullet at 5 weeks......not nearly as much comb, no wattle, and definitely still yellow, not red.



Here's the same pullet at 15 weeks. Starting to turn red, but still not as large as the 5 week old cockerel.



Hope these pics help. I talked to the woman I re-homed the cockerel to two days ago. He is now 16 weeks old and doing fine.

ETA: Not all chicks of the same breed develop the same. It's possible you could get early developing hens or late developing cockerels. Many suggest waiting til the first crow or egg to decide.

 

[lvalley]

Hi there - Australorps tend to be one of the easier chicks to sex using a combination of tail feathers and combs.

In my Australorp birds, the female chicks had much better developed tail feathers from about 3 weeks until 10 weeks, while the males had only stumpy short tails. The difference was very obvious.

Also, by 4 or 5 weeks the males combs will start to turn pink and start growing much faster than the females, whose combs will stay yellow and smaller much longer.

Here is a good link which covers this topic:

http://www.ithaca.edu/staff/jhenderson/chooks/sexingchicks.html

This tail feather sexing approach doesn't work for all breeds - for example, in leghorns / leghorn crosses, the tails of both sexes seems to grow at a similar rate.

I hope this helps.

 

[kitnut]

Comb,waddles and aggressive behavior in that order are your first indications. I just went through this with a Buff rooster. He lives at a rooster park near me. NO KILL zone was my only requirement. I miss my Millard. I replaced him with a Jersey Giant so I could have my alloted 8 chickens in the back yard. My girls are'nt taking to her after 1 week. She lives in a 16' x 4' cage within the chicken run cage. She's happy. These are the situations that you live with when you deal with getting chicks that sometimes end up being roosters. In Seattle,they ticket you and confiscate your rooster. So,I had to hide him for a while. It made me cry when I heard him crow. I should've been happy. But,some people are'nt happy paying property taxes while listening to a rooster. I miss Millard.

 

[Bluebell Ella]

Too are less friendly see wich ones with kick up a fuss when holding then put ones think roo and put them in a different coop because they can furtlizes eggs at the a
Age of 4 weeks

 

[gardendufus]

I will comment that my cockerel was the calmest and quietest of ALL my birds. When out in the run, he tended to lay around more, letting the pullets do most of the scratching around. He seemed to be taking on the role of 'watchcock' seriously, even at a young age. The only aggression I saw from him was a joining in of picking on new chicks when I tried to integrate them when he was 5 weeks old.

 

[Bluebell Ella]

Too are less friendly see wich ones with kick up a fuss when holding then put ones think roo and put them in a different coop because they can furtlizes eggs at the a
Age of 4 weeks

 

[shober]

You guys are not going to believe this. My uncle told me yesterday that my grandmother used to put a very young chicks head in her mouth and if it kicked it was a rooster. If the legs just hung there it is a hen!! I laughted so hard........I do wonder if it works!!

They would have to be little!