PLEASE HELP!! Silver laced wyandotte chick question!

[Lorrainechicken]

(This may be a long read but its important to me) We just got some new chicks a few weeks ago since our current hens are getting older. We got 8 birds in total, but the two i am here to ask about are the silver laced wyandotte chicks. We got both chicks at the same time, but they are not growing exactly the same…

One chick is smaller than the other, has a skinny, light pink, single comb, and a tinier tail. The other is bigger, has a thickening beak but no comb yet, and a long tail. They have to be different genders, right? I am inserting a picture, but here is a list for both chicks. Anytime we think we have the genders figured out, something new happens to confuse us…

chick with darker head

• bigger
• thickening beak
• no comb
• long tail
• possibly attempting to crow (attempting to attach video)

chick with lighter head (mine)

• smaller
• single light pink comb
• short tail
• loves to perch

This is so important to me because I have only gotten to name two of the dozens of hens we have had. My first was a different kind of wyandotte, but “she” started crowing a few months in and we had to give him away to a new flock (we can’t have roosters). My second is now the silver laced wyandotte, and I will be absolutely devastated if I have to give my “hen” away again. I have never used this forum before so hopefully I can manage to get a reply lol.

 

[Lorrainechicken]

(This may be a long read but its important to me) We just got some new chicks a few weeks ago since our current hens are getting older. We got 8 birds in total, but the two i am here to ask about are the silver laced wyandotte chicks. We got both chicks at the same time, but they are not growing exactly the same…

One chick is smaller than the other, has a skinny, light pink, single comb, and a tinier tail. The other is bigger, has a thickening beak but no comb yet, and a long tail. They have to be different genders, right? I am inserting a picture, but here is a list for both chicks. Anytime we think we have the genders figured out, something new happens to confuse us…

chick with darker head

• bigger
• thickening beak
• no comb
• long tail
• possibly attempting to crow (attempting to attach video)

chick with lighter head (mine)

• smaller
• single light pink comb
• short tail
• loves to perch

This is so important to me because I have only gotten to name two of the dozens of hens we have had. My first was a different kind of wyandotte, but “she” started crowing a few months in and we had to give him away to a new flock (we can’t have roosters). My second is now the silver laced wyandotte, and I will be absolutely devastated if I have to give my “hen” away again. I have never used this forum before so hopefully I can manage to get a reply lol.

Here’s the video of possible attempted crowing?

 

[AinaWGSD]

They're young yet, but neither looks particularly like a cockerel to me. In the video, Daisy looks to me like she's adjusting her crop, something chicks of either sex will do. Early crowing sounds kinda like a rusty hinge.

Logic does suggest that if they are growing or feathering in a different rates they're probably different genders. Unfortunately, you can't really count on that with popular hatchery breeds. Hatcheries tend to focus on laying abilities, at least in part because if a hen has more eggs they can hatch more chicks for sale, and aren't usually very particular about other breed traits. Since they're breeding for volume it's not uncommon for there to be a lot of variation in the offspring, so you can get chicks with different growth rates and incorrect traits (single combs are incorrect for wyandotte breed type but fairly common in hatchery wyandottes since it's recessive and hard to track when breeding the kinds of numbers hatcheries work with)

 

[Lorrainechicken]

They're young yet, but neither looks particularly like a cockerel to me. In the video, Daisy looks to me like she's adjusting her crop, something chicks of either sex will do. Early crowing sounds kinda like a rusty hinge.

Logic does suggest that if they are growing or feathering in a different rates they're probably different genders. Unfortunately, you can't really count on that with popular hatchery breeds. Hatcheries tend to focus on laying abilities, at least in part because if a hen has more eggs they can hatch more chicks for sale, and aren't usually very particular about other breed traits. Since they're breeding for volume it's not uncommon for there to be a lot of variation in the offspring, so you can get chicks with different growth rates and incorrect traits (single combs are incorrect for wyandotte breed type but fairly common in hatchery wyandottes since it's recessive and hard to track when breeding the kinds of numbers hatcheries work with)

Thank you, this is helpful! Hopefully they both are hens but just have different traits

 

[redinator]

if you hear this then you have a rooster in the bunch.