Buff Leghorn chick color question....

[math ace]

A couple of weeks ago I had a really good hatch of buff leghorn chicks. They were shipped eggs and the chicks are my first experience with Buff's.

Within the first week, I noticed that about 1/2 are exhibiting darker colors in the emerging wing feathers. The other half of the hatch are solid buff color - EVERY WHERE. Add to that, the fact that the ones exhibiting a darker color on the wings are slower feathering, I am wondering....

Are buff leghorns color sexed? Are the dark wing feathered chicks the cockerels?

I've googled BYC and the Internet. I searched images. I just can not find anything to tell me.

So is it possible? ? Are the dark wing feathered chicks little cockerels?

Thanks

 

[sourland]

I'm thinking that the person from whom you got the eggs might be best able to answer this question.

 

[math ace]

Funny you should say that..... I did send the breeder an email, but have not heard back from them yet. I was hoping someone on BYC would have some personal experience with buff leghorn chicks and could help answer my question

 

[danhonour]

I have hatched thousands of Buff Leghorns and still have Buff Leghorn chicks.It is not sex linked.The ones with brown or black head/neck spots,amost always have pepper in tails and sometimes pepper in wings.Females will sometimes show pepper in back or tail coverts. Those that are solid buff often are the best colored as adults.The general shade of buff (being light or medium)often is the adult shade of buff.Reddish chicks,those with faint black or white stripes on back are often the poor colored adults as well as those with numerous head spots.

 

[math ace]

I have hatched thousands of Buff Leghorns and still have Buff Leghorn chicks.It is not sex linked.The ones with brown or black head/neck spots,amost always have pepper in tails and sometimes pepper in wings.Females will sometimes show pepper in back or tail coverts. Those that are solid buff often are the best colored as adults.The general shade of buff (being light or medium)often is the adult shade of buff.Reddish chicks,those with faint black or white stripes on back are often the poor colored adults as well as those with numerous head spots.

I think we have figured out what is going on with these chicks...First, let me say that I was hatching three breeds of chicks from three different breeders. I hatched some solid buff leghorns and then some that I thought were buff leghorns. They were solid buff like the other leghorns, but a slightly darker buff color.

As they feathered in, black started showing up in the wings. . . A week later, now that they are two weeks old, they look like this...




See the buff on the head. That was the color of the entire chick two weeks ago, at hatch. Turns out this is a speckled sussex. I didn't know that Speckled Sussex could be born without the traditional chipmunk coloring like this one has...





So mystery solved.... FYI, the true buff leghorn chicks look like this at two weeks of age...