"Production Red" Chick Sexing?

[obdormition]

Hi all, first time posting on this thread. We just got our first baby chicks from TSC on Saturday. They were labeled as straight run production reds. They are likely a week old plus or minus a couple days at this point. We've been researching production reds, but have run into some confusing information. Some sites say they're sex linked, some say they aren't but function like sex linked, and some say they flat out aren't. It's my understanding that they're a RIR + NHR cross, so they're not sex-linked, meaning you can't really sex them visually. Am i correct on this? If not, could you all give us your opinions on their sex based on the photos below? Feathers included as well in case the shape helps. Numbers 1 and 2 are our big 'uns, they're double the size of the others, with thicker legs...should we be worried they're Roos? Their combs aren't really developed much yet but I can grab additional photos of that if needed. Apologies for holding them in the photos; they're super active and rambunctious and won't really sit still for a photo otherwise.

We've also got this one special gal (#4 below) with white, well-developed wing feathers. I believe she may be a stray gold or red sex link. Thoughts?

Any help is greatly appreciated, even if it's just that it's too early to tell. Thanks in advance!

 

[nuthatched]

Hi all, first time posting on this thread. We just got our first baby chicks from TSC on Saturday. They were labeled as straight run production reds. They are likely a week old plus or minus a couple days at this point. We've been researching production reds, but have run into some confusing information. Some sites say they're sex linked, some say they aren't but function like sex linked, and some say they flat out aren't. It's my understanding that they're a RIR + NHR cross, so they're not sex-linked, meaning you can't really sex them visually. Am i correct on this? If not, could you all give us your opinions on their sex based on the photos below? Feathers included as well in case the shape helps. Numbers 1 and 2 are our big 'uns, they're double the size of the others, with thicker legs...should we be worried they're Roos? Their combs aren't really developed much yet but I can grab additional photos of that if needed. Apologies for holding them in the photos; they're super active and rambunctious and won't really sit still for a photo otherwise.

We've also got this one special gal (#4 below) with white, well-developed wing feathers. I believe she may be a stray gold or red sex link. Thoughts?

Any help is greatly appreciated, even if it's just that it's too early to tell. Thanks in advance!

Production red are sex linked birds, females are born buff, males white.
Wing sexing has to be bred for so it doesn't apply to 98% of birds and only works in the first 3 days after hatch.

 

[FunClucks]

I ended up with a production red rooster. Based on my one experience, I think all yours are hens. You may be right about the white winged one being something else though. Here's pics where I was trying to ID Speckle as a chick so you can see the difference.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...lso-care-questions-new-chicken-owner.1523012/

 

[obdormition]

Production red are sex linked birds, females are born buff, males white.
Wing sexing has to be bred for so it doesn't apply to 98% of birds and only works in the first 3 days after hatch.

Thanks! I've seen some people say that, but then came across this thread where PR are stated to not be sex-linked...the confusion continues! Either way it seems like we've missed the time period where we could sex them by looks, so we have to wait it out now?

 

[obdormition]

I ended up with a production red rooster. Based on my one experience, I think all yours are hens. You may be right about the white winged one being something else though. Here's pics where I was trying to ID Speckle as a chick so you can see the difference.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...lso-care-questions-new-chicken-owner.1523012/

Thanks! That's helpful. Ours aren't speckled like yours yet, but we'll be on the lookout for them to start developing those

 

[3KillerBs]

IIRC, Production Reds and production-strain Red Sexlinks are often confused but not the same.

The former is either a cross of RIR with New Hampshire or a strain of RIR selected for production qualities rather than show qualities. Different hatcheries may use the same name for different birds. They will be red but may nor may not have the black tails of the New Hampshiires and usually don't have the deep mahoghany color associated with show-type RIRs.

The latter is a cross that produces red females (usually with white tails or abundant white leakage), and white males (usually with red leakage, especially on the shoulders).

If yours are Production Reds, you should see the males' combs popping up by about 4 weeks since one of the qualities selected for is fast maturation.

 

[Rhodebar Lover]

IIRC, Production Reds and production-strain Red Sexlinks are often confused but not the same.

The former is either a cross of RIR with New Hampshire or a strain of RIR selected for production qualities rather than show qualities. Different hatcheries may use the same name for different birds. They will be red but may nor may not have the black tails of the New Hampshiires and usually don't have the deep mahoghany color associated with show-type RIRs.

The latter is a cross that produces red females (usually with white tails or abundant white leakage), and white males (usually with red leakage, especially on the shoulders).

If yours are Production Reds, you should see the males' combs popping up by about 4 weeks since one of the qualities selected for is fast maturation.

That is exactly true. 4 however isn't a Production Red and rather a Red Sexlink because of the white That one is a pullet because of her coloring. I will say, Production Reds are typically just laying-strain Rhode Island Reds and have pretty light body types. These are pretty chunky, I wonder if they're broilers of some sort.

 

[FunClucks]

If yours are Production Reds, you should see the males' combs popping up by about 4 weeks since one of the qualities selected for is fast maturation.

Agree. I recently crossed my Production Red rooster with my Prairie Bluebells (blue eggers) and Starlight Green Eggers and I could tell that 12/20 were cockerels and 4/20 were pullets by size and paleness of their comb, all by 3 weeks. It's 3 months now, and my guesses were all correct. There might be 4 slow developing cockerels in there which I've been unsure of this whole time, still waiting to see which way those go. Being able to correctly sex the chicks by 3 weeks by comb type for 16/20 chickens is pretty awesome, I think.

 

[3KillerBs]

Agree. I recently crossed my Production Red rooster with my Prairie Bluebells (blue eggers) and Starlight Green Eggers and I could tell that 12/20 were cockerels and 4/20 were pullets by size and paleness of their comb, all by 3 weeks. It's 3 months now, and my guesses were all correct. There might be 4 slow developing cockerels in there which I've been unsure of this whole time, still waiting to see which way those go. Being able to correctly sex the chicks by 3 weeks by comb type for 16/20 chickens is pretty awesome, I think.

*nods*

My Australorps are similar. I can sex most of my chicks at 3-4 weeks with only a rare fast pullet fooling me so far.

 

[FunClucks]

Thanks! That's helpful. Ours aren't speckled like yours yet, but we'll be on the lookout for them to start developing those

Yea, those really threw me, as you can tell from my thread. As an adult, he was the darkest mahogany color ever, with a black tail with green sheen. Gorgeous, but no relation to how he looked as a chick.

Chick down color was pale whitish yellow, with a very faint head stripe you could barely see, which is different than the female production reds, so I wanted to show you that. And they breed for egg laying, not body type, so the blue beak, skin, etc. really surprised me. A lot of his chicks ended up with blue skin too. The blue skin, and all speckling pretty much all went away when he was adult, but he did end up with black nails and black/brown beak. Mostly mahogany, some lighter brown and black on his wings, black on his breast.