I'm delighted to see someone testing these methods in a properly scientific fashion.
My limited personal experience with the Comb Shape method -- which I thought of as a comb size thing -- is that my Blue Australorp males have popped significant combs by 3 weeks, matching the "male" shape prediction exactly. Likewise for my only male Marans.
But a female Blue Rock also popped a larger, though not quite as large, comb at that age -- my notes from when I banded her as a possible male include a question mark.
This article is great! I give it 6 stars (as in over the limit)! I could spend hours looking over this and still be interested! I have always been interested in the Wife Tales, and this was like an answer to my dreams! I think I this is probably my favorite BYC article ever (including my own)! I can tell it took a LOT of research and time, so thank you so much!
I really enjoyed reading over your methodology and the results. The results are surprising - especially for some of the more "wives tale" type tests. Your graphs were very helpful and made comparing the results simple. I wonder what would happen with a larger number of chicks...
Not to worry, more chicks are coming! I intend to add to this article each time I hatch or buy chicks, so the numbers should continue to get larger and larger!
Wow, it's clear how much time went into not only the experiments but also writing the article. Great job, and fun to see the results conducted by one of our very own BYC'ers!