Sexing 5 week old RiR and Brown Leghorn.

[gloken]

Hey, I have some five week old birds, and I'm really curious what they are. The birds in question Rhode Island Reds and Brown Leghorns, but I can't even guess what gender. Any thoughts? There's a missing leghorn in the picture, but (s)he looks just like the two that are pictured here.

 

[Basskids08]

Those are all boys!

 

[gloken]

Those are all boys!

How can you tell?

That sounds like a lot of chicken dinner in my future... we were looking for eggs here!

 

[lightchick]

They all look like roosters to me.

 

[lightchick]

They all have very big combs for being that young. Are you sure that they are only 5 weeks?
They look a lot like my 8 week old chicks.
These are my pullets. I hope my Silkie is a pullet anyway!



This is a old pic of one of my RIR roosters. (the hatchery sent extra roos

now I have to find new homes for them) He was about 5-7 weeks in this pic......I think he was about 5.

 

[gloken]

They were born on the 23rd of May. Maybe I'm feeding them too much.

 

[lightchick]

Haha. Weird. I wonder why your chicks are so big! Are you sure they were born that day? I can't believe it!
My were born on the 29 of April.

 

[gloken]

Haha. Weird. I wonder why your chicks are so big! Are you sure they were born that day? I can't believe it!
My were born on the 29 of April.

We picked them up from a heritage breeding program at the University of Alberta, and they were supposed to have been hatched the day before we got them. They sure looked and acted a day old.

I will say, it's been amazing watching them grow. I swear every morning they're bigger.

 

[lightchick]

So they looked like this?

 

[gloken]

Pretty much like that! I don't have a picture from the first day we had them, but they were ridiculous little balls of helpless fluff, with tiny nubs for wings. These were taken a couple days after we picked them up: