Bielefelder mix chicks- auto sexing?

[Fluster Cluck Acres]

I have 2 Bielefelder mix chicks. Mom is Biele. Dad is a black mix of mostly orpington. I believe this means the chicks’ colors are sex linked since Bieles have barring?

Am I correct in my thinking and can anyone tell me what traits I should be looking for to tell the difference? I have 2 this hatch but also have more on the way in the next couple weeks. These 2 look very different, so I’m thinking one female and one male, but which is which?

If the coloring is anything like Welsummer, I think the chick on the right with the prominent markings is female? And the more muddled colored chick on the left is male?

 

[MysteryChicken]

I have 2 Bielefelder mix chicks. Mom is Biele. Dad is a black mix of mostly printing. I believe this means the chicks’ colors are sex linked since Bieles have barring?

Am I correct in my thinking and can anyone tell me what traits I should be looking for to tell the difference? I have 2 this hatch but also have more on the way in the next couple weeks. These 2 look very different, so I’m thinking one female and one male, but which is which?

If the coloring is anything like Welsummer, I think the chick on the right with the prominent markings is female? And the more muddled colored chick on the left is male?

If father is solid, & mother is Barred then yes, they'd be sexlinked.

Males would have a headspot, & females won't.
Both chicks appear female.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Dad is a black mix of mostly printing.

Was this autocorrect or is this something I'm just not familiar with?


Head spots are funny on down colors other than black and can be pretty tough to see in some cases. Female Bielefelders, Legbars, and other autosexing breeds are barred and often don't have a visible head spot in their chick down despite that, for example. Personally, I'd hold out until they start getting wing feathers before determining what their sexes are based on that trait, as the barring may be more apparent in actual feathers than the head spot is in the chick down.

 

[Fluster Cluck Acres]

Was this autocorrect or is this something I'm just not familiar with?

Sorry it was Autocorrect. Apparently I have fat fingers this morning, lol. It should have said Orpington. I’ll edit the original post.

Head spots are funny on down colors other than black and can be pretty tough to see in some cases. Female Bielefelders, Legbars, and other autosexing breeds are barred and often don't have a visible head spot in their chick down despite that, for example. Personally, I'd hold out until they start getting wing feathers before determining what their sexes are based on that trait, as the barring may be more apparent in actual feathers than the head spot is in the chick down.

What color would this head spot be? I’m not making any drastic decisions based on gender at this point, but I’m that person that can never stop guessing- even with non sex linked chicks.

 

[Fluster Cluck Acres]

Males would have a headspot, & females won't.
Both chicks appear female.

That would be awesome. I mostly just hatch roosters, haha! The head spot would be white, right?

 

[NatJ]

What color would this head spot be? I’m not making any drastic decisions based on gender at this point, but I’m that person that can never stop guessing- even with non sex linked chicks.

When barring causes a head spot, the spot is white or yellow in color (like on the heads of Barred Rock chicks, or on male Bielefelder chicks.)

Some chicks have dark markings on their heads (like one of yours does, or random-looking dots of actual black on some chicks I have seen), but those are not a "head spot" when talking about barring.

 

[MysteryChicken]

That would be awesome. I mostly just hatch roosters, haha! The head spot would be white, right?

White, or yellowish white.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

As everyone else has said, the head spot that indicates barring is white or yellowish. It's most obvious in black chick down, and other chick down colors can muddy the expression of it, especially in single-factor barring like what females would have in autosexing breeds and like what males would have in barring sexlink crosses.

Example, here is a Barred Plymouth Rock bantam pullet with a clear head spot (she is black barred, her leg band was blue and that's why I wrote blue on the picture )

This is sort of not a great picture, but I don't have many that even show the tops of their heads, unfortunately. Anyway, this is a Bielefelder pullet that you can see has barring in her feathers, but no visible head spot in her chick down:

 

[Fluster Cluck Acres]

So my chick with the darker markings on the head seems like it has a be a pullet. The more muddled chick does not have any obvious white spot, but does have some patches of silvery type down on the head (not quite where the head spots should be). So I'm thinking female for this one, too, as @MysteryChicken already suggested. But I'm feeling a little less confident with this one.

Anyone else have have opinions about how accurate this headspot is - particularly on lighter downed chicks? I've read that some of it has to do with breeding and genetics and birds that are bred to be more obvious to sex as chicks- whereas birds bred for other reasons (like mine) may be harder to determine/less accurate due to smaller/camoflaugued headspots (sort of Like @pipdzipdnreadytogo mentioned). My Bieles are hatchery quality (Hoovers) and my roosters are random homebred mixes. One roo is black and one is (I think) splash.

I also have a semi of off-topic question and I have no idea if anyone knows the answer- do the big hatcheries still vent-sex their auto sexing chicks? In particular the breeds that are a little less obvious like the Bieles or the legbars?

 

[MysteryChicken]

So my chick with the darker markings on the head seems like it has a be a pullet. The more muddled chick does not have any obvious white spot, but does have some patches of silvery type down on the head (not quite where the head spots should be). So I'm thinking female for this one, too, as @MysteryChicken already suggested. But I'm feeling a little less confident with this one.

Anyone else have have opinions about how accurate this headspot is - particularly on lighter downed chicks? I've read that some of it has to do with breeding and genetics and birds that are bred to be more obvious to sex as chicks- whereas birds bred for other reasons (like mine) may be harder to determine/less accurate due to smaller/camoflaugued headspots (sort of Like @pipdzipdnreadytogo mentioned). My Bieles are hatchery quality (Hoovers) and my roosters are random homebred mixes. One roo is black and one is (I think) splash.

I also have a semi of off-topic question and I have no idea if anyone knows the answer- do the big hatcheries still vent-sex their auto sexing chicks? In particular the breeds that are a little less obvious like the Bieles or the legbars?

Headspots are usually on the top of the head, can vary in shape, & size. Some headspots can be more positioned in the Back of the head/neck area at times.