I have this same question - some of my chicks aren't so easy to tell. If there is even a faint white spot on top, even if it has dark markings like a female on its back - is it still a male? I think these are all males - right?
Going by what mine looked like as chicks and turned out to be, in the photo with the two of them sitting down, the back left chick is female, the front right is male. In my case it was the markings of the full body more than the spot. My boys had that light gray exactly like yours does there, and the females were the much darker color.
Thank you so much! This information has been very helpful!
No, you're thinking of barred sex linked chicks, where the females are non-barred and the males are barred. The white spot on the head indicates barring. Both male and female legbars are barred, so both male and female chicks should have a head spot, although it may be so small and faint on the female chicks as to go unnoticed.
Thanks so much! I just hatched about 40 chicks - mostly Cream Legbars - a few Marans. I understand now. I was mostly looking at the head spot - not so much the markings. I kept my first couple hatches building my flock - and I didn't band the chicks when born and afterwards it was hard to tell roos from hens until they started crowing. I got a great variety of colors in both the hens and the roos. Love this breed! I'm going to separate females from males this morning and take a picture of each box - for future reference, and to post here. I think I understand now. Thanks again! Here are pictures of two Cream Legbar roos that I hatched last year - just to show the variety of colors. (I kept the one on the right - he's so handsome!)
Not necessarily true, but im noticing a trend for all females to be hyper melanized (lots of black & smudgieness - even coloring the salmon breast), so more are hatching dark now. Also the darker females can be Crele variety, not Cream.
