When could you tell what sex your Brahmas were?

[ladybrasa]

So far the buff Brahma appears to have round tipped saddle feathers, which indicates female, but everything I’ve read is 3 months is about the time to tell for sure.

For the light Brahma I can’t really see the feathering - saddle feathers are those in the area you would put a saddle on a chicken to the base of the tail. Not the tail feathers.

There are some good pics on BYC indicating make and female saddle feathers, but unfortunately I don’t have them bookmarked

In the pic of mine with the Brahma that turned out to be a girl you can see that the feathers on her back are round-tipped, not pointy like a boy. (The pic from the make isn’t that great and hard to make out the feathers, imo)

 

[kflowers629]

I’m interested to hear about others who have raised Light Brahmas and any differences you noticed between the growing pullets and cockerels. I’m currently raising 5 that I bought sexed as female from Cackle Hatchery about 4 weeks ago. Everything I find say that I must be patient because they are slow to mature so I have no idea what I’m looking for over here.

They all grew tails and feathers at the same time but, I notice differences in their coloring. Two have very light colored collars and the rest have black collars. Another 2 have combs with a little bit of warm orange coloring the outside border of the comb. The smallest is the noisiest and makes sounds like a tiny car engine trying to turn over. The bravest has a lighter colored collar but no oranging comb or wattle growth. Their tails are all pretty similar. All the general indicators of sex seem to conflict each other in every bird. Needless to say, I’m lost!

So I’m hoping that y’all can maybe tell me how you determined your Light Brahmas sex. Other than laying an egg or crowing, did anything else crop up that screamed pullet or cockerel?

 

[kflowers629]

I’m interested to hear about others who have raised Light Brahmas and any differences you noticed between the growing pullets and cockerels. I’m currently raising 5 that I bought sexed as female from Cackle Hatchery about 4 weeks ago. Everything I find say that I must be patient because they are slow to mature so I have no idea what I’m looking for over here.

They all grew tails and feathers at the same time but, I notice differences in their coloring. Two have very light colored collars and the rest have black collars. Another 2 have combs with a little bit of warm orange coloring the outside border of the comb. The smallest is the noisiest and makes sounds like a tiny car engine trying to turn over. The bravest has a lighter colored collar but no oranging comb or wattle growth. Their tails are all pretty similar. All the general indicators of sex seem to conflict each other in every bird. Needless to say, I’m lost!

So I’m hoping that y’all can maybe tell me how you determined your Light Brahmas sex. Other than laying an egg or crowing, did anything else crop up that screamed pullet or cockerel?

I bought what I thought, and was told, was a LB hen. It wasn't until my husband heard her crow one morning, that we realized we have a roo on our hands... I still say She and Her when I talk about him.