4 week old orps

[rarely bored]

At this age I can tell what gender my other chickens are, but these guys are more difficult. They are my first attempt at hatching shipped eggs and I'm enjoying the colors but am clueless on gender.
#1: black orp

#2:

#3:

#4

#5

#6

oops, missed one, there should be 7. Taking free range type pictures isn't as easy as I thought!
Thank you!

 

[TwoCrows]

It may be a bit too early to tell. But with Orpingtons, the boys will start to develop combs pretty early. And by 6 weeks of age, Orp boys can have honking big combs!

But I am not seeing any thing screeming Roo here, so it is possible that you may have hatched all girls!! You will know for sure in a few weeks when they turn 6 or 7 weeks old.

 

[rarely bored]

Thank you so much!

I really, really need to have at least one roo, so I can replace my cranky, hatchery quality buff orpington.

Hopefully, since these came from a breeder, they are just a little slower to mature than my other chicks.

 

[gumpsgirl]

B/B/S Orpingtons are the hardest to sex early on, unless they are buffs. Buffs do seem to show combs early on. The two cockerels that I have over my girls right now completely fooled me! I didn't know they were cockerels until they were 20 + weeks old! I should have been able to tell by their size but everything else fooled me. Give them until they are 10 wks. old and you should be able to tell. I'm guessing that the two that are being slow to feather in are going to be cockerels. Of course that is just a guess and I can't be certain, but that has seemed to be a pattern here with my birds for some reason.

They are feathering out lovely too! It looks like you have a splash, a black, and the rest are blues. Nice combination! I love the lacing on blue #3.

 

[Egghead_Jr]

I'm not seeing a roo yet either. When comparing the legs of all seven if one (or more) don't stand out as significantly larger than the rest then odds are you've all pullets. With my BBS Orpington this year two had much larger legs and one was simply gawky looking. Yup, that was my boy and his red comb started at 4 weeks, wattles at 5 and had is first awkward crow at 10 weeks.

 

[Countrypunk92]

Quote:
She would be considered lucky lol. 95 percent of the time people hatch all roos.

. I might need her to bless my eggs to give me luck.XD

 

[rarely bored]

Quote:
What fun that would be!! To have the power to bless eggs into pullets!! Maybe the trick is to want one gender more than the other, so then you get none??

Quote:
All the legs look about equal... Which is why my photos didn't concentrate on the legs, even if I really should have. That akward crow is such a hoot! I can hardly wait!

Quote:
I really like the lacing on #3 too.

Good to know the feathering trick -- I didn't realize there were any orpington lines which one could hope to try it on.
Ten weeks!! Wow that is a while! Maybe I can add pictures every week and photo journal their development - could be fun.

My oldest son really likes the black one, I love the blues and am enjoying the splash's shade of light blue while eagerly awaiting its changes.

 

[gumpsgirl]

I'm not saying that the feathering trick is 100% certain, I'm just saying that is that just seems to be how things have worked here and since the chicks came from my line, there's a good chance of it working that way for you too. It could very well be that the slower feathering ones still end up being pullets, but that hasn't been my experience here.