buff Orpington Chicks

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Rockland Farm

Rockland Farm

In the Brooder
10 Years
Jul 25, 2009
57
0
39
Connecticut
Hello! i am thinking about buying a few buff orpington chicks from a guy down the road, and i was wondering if anyone could post pictures of their chicks to help me determine what gender i pick out? It is much appreciated!!
 
Unfortunately you can't sex buff orps as chicks. You need to wait until they're at least 4-6 weeks along, before you can tell-even then.... Good luck with your chick adventure though!!
 
Quote:
This scares me a little, since I have two buff orp pullets coming from mypetchicken this week. How can they sell females if they don't really know??
 
At the hatcheries they sex the chicks by looking inside them while mashing them. If you try it later it will hurt them. Then they are about 90%right. Buffs are hard to sex because the roos are the same looking when little as the hens. Hope this helps Gloria Jean
 
Okay so this is TOTALLY in my OPINION but..... we got 37 Buff Orpington chicks from Mc Murrays last summer and I think that you can tell the difference. So here is how we can tell the difference the hens have longer wing feathers and the feathers grow in faster, I am posting pics of 3 week old hen and rooster. Just take your time looking at them you will start to see the difference.

Hen:
46778_hen_3_weeks.jpg


Rooster:
46778_rooster_3_wk.jpg


I know these are three weeks old but you can tell the difference in a few days. So hope this helps ....
 
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Quote:
Yes, this is called vent sexing and must be done on day 1. They squeeze the poop out of the vent and look inside to see a bump. Now they must determine by the size of the bump whether it is male or female. This is best done by experts and I, for sure am not one!! lol There is about a 90% accuracy rate as stated by Gloria Jean.
 
Here's a couple more pictures at 3 days old. The hens start forming wing feather right away, and the roosters are much slower to develop them. You can tell them apart right away if you know what to look for. I had to crop these from a larger picture with a bazillion chicks. Hope you can see well enough.

46778_3day_hen.jpg


46778_3day_rooster.jpg
 
Quote:
so after they are 4-6 weeks along, (my baby is about 7 now) how can you sex them??
 
so after they are 4-6 weeks along, (my baby is about 7 now) how can you sex them??

By 7 weeks I'd think it would be obvious if it was a roo... I could pretty much tell that one of my two was a roo at 3 weeks, although I wasn't completely sure until 4 1/2. His comb was much bigger than my orp hen's, he was developing waddles, and the comb and waddles were getting were super red by 4 1/2 or 5 weeks. Not to mention his behavior was also very roostery... The girls run to him when they're upset and any time we're outside he rounds them up and gets them under cover when big birds or a plane flies over. Its pretty interesting how early that behavior started actually. I think he's gonna be a good little protector if we are able to keep him
smile.png
 
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49910_photo0922.jpg


does this look like a hen then? shes the only buff orpington we have that is this age, so i have nothing to compare it too
 

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