Able to tell sex of chicks by color / feathers?

[lhines08]

We just had a super successful hatch! 21 out of 23 !!

So these our our backyard chicks and I really don't know if there is a way to tell the sex by color or by dots on head when they are mixed? My son (who is 13) is sure the hens will have longer wing feathers by day 3. We are looking to keep 8 for ourself and I of course want to try and keep hens. The rest he is giving to friends.

The cream/tan chipmunk looking ones are from rhoad island red hens and an ameraucana rooster . (Some have a much more darker defined back.)

The light colored ones with a few black spots are from our white leghorn hens and an ameraucana rooster. (Some have a black dot right in the middle on top of head)

The gray chipmunk looking ones are ameraucana rooster and hen.

The black ones I think are ameraucana rooster and a black australorp hen.

 

[DemeterAD9]

I’m not an expert on genetics but I don’t think you’d get any sex linked colors out of your mixes and feather sexing is only reliable if the parents carry the right genes for it. As for feather growth, many say the females grow tail and wing feathers faster than males but again, that depends on the genetics of the parents (though I find this more reliable than wing sexing at hatch). For the dots on the heads, that mainly applies to crosses including a barred hen and a non barred roo.

I would say wait till they are about 4-8 weeks old before you pick the ones you want to keep. Either that or keep all the chicks from the crossings you want and grow them a bit longer before sorting out the males.

 

[Yardmom]

Most chicks can not be sexed at hatched other than vent sexing, which I have heard takes training (that I don't have) to do. A few chicks can be sexed by the methods you mentioned, but only if the correct breeding was used. I don't see any combinations that I know of, but others might.

 

[lhines08]

I’m not an expert on genetics but I don’t think you’d get any sex linked colors out of your mixes and feather sexing is only reliable if the parents carry the right genes for it. As for feather growth, many say the females grow tail and wing feathers faster than males but again, that depends on the genetics of the parents (though I find this more reliable than wing sexing at hatch). For the dots on the heads, that mainly applies to crosses including a barred hen and a non barred roo.

I would say wait till they are about 4-8 weeks old before you pick the ones you want to keep. Either that or keep all the chicks from the crossings you want and grow them a bit longer before sorting out the males.

I hate to keep then that long just because he's got another round already going in the incubator. demend for chicks this year are crazy. He's taking all our eating eggs