No Boys Allowed

One of the worst parts about chick ownership is it's often hard to tell if you have a pullet (female) or cockerel (male) until they are a few weeks old. There are certain methods that can be used to more accurately guess, but these typically have to be done by a professional. The owner of the hatchery I get my girls from offers 85% sexing accuracy, so while those odds are pretty high, it still leaves room for error. As soon as I picked up my first set of chicks in December, I started obsessively browsing through pictures of each breed and what I should look for to help me figure out their sex. I'm pretty sure my husband thought I was insane (not that he didn't already think that). Every day I had a new guess on which one was really a boy and how sad I was going to be when I had to take them back to the hatchery. I posted pictures of my babies on Backyard Chickens every couple of weeks and was told by some that Dolly & Amelia were likely boys. The biggest concern with the two of them came from the "reddish comb." It varies by breed, but when the comb and waddles start developing early and turn reddish, this could mean the chick is a male. Others told me that the stance can be a giveaway... cockerels tend to stand up straighter and try to tower over the others. Cockerels' legs are also much thicker than pullets. My problem with all of these suggestions came from the fact that all of my chicks were different breeds. I couldn't compare them to each other because they all developed differently, so I just crossed my fingers and waited until I could tell for sure. My first babies ended up all being girls, woohoo!


I wasn't so lucky with my next little ones, though. My first mistake was buying two chicks at a local farm supply store. Not only did they give me one boy, but both chicks ended up being different breeds than what I had requested. I asked for a Light Brahma and Welsummer pullet and ended up with a Light Brown Leghorn pullet (Florence) and cockerel (Eleanor). Brown Leghorns are pretty easy to sex once their feathers come in. The males have black chests and the females have light brown. Also, Eleanor had a HUGE red comb when he was only 4 weeks old. There was no question in my mind that she was really a he.

Pea with the Brown Leghorn cockerel on her shoulder, pullet on her arm

Eleanor (male, 2 weeks old)

                 Left: Female, 3 weeks old; Right: Male, 2 weeks old         

  

4 week old cockerel on left; 5 week old pullet on right.

Notice the larger red comb and black chest on the male.

Since these babies were still young, I took Eleanor back to the farm supply store and went to my local hatchery to get a new chick. The age of the chick is important if you need to switch them out for any reason. My chicken guy told me that you can't mix them right away after about 5 weeks of age. Chickens are mean and attack each other... it's really terrible! Bigger ones will kill the smaller ones; I've read lots of stories about chickens missing body parts, etc after mixing them before they were ready. *Shudders* 

Anyway, so I got a 4-week-old Russian Orloff (Sasha) from the hatchery to put with my Brown Leghorn pullet. Russian Orloffs are really cool looking chickens, but unfortunately I couldn't find much information on them as far as sexing goes because they are pretty rare. It wasn't until Sasha was about 10 weeks old that I thought I may have a cockerel. This breed doesn't get the red comb, so I couldn't go off of that. But he did start "honking" and honking a lot. All day long he was sounding like a teenage boy going through puberty. Sasha also had HUGE legs. Bigger than any of my original girls who are all full grown. He also had some long and curvy sickle feathers (tail feathers), which are found in males. I sent my chicken guy some pictures and he confirmed my suspicions. I decided to let Florence go back to the hatchery with Sasha because she was still too small to put with my big girls (I tried once... it was awful) and I didn't want her to be in a coop all by herself. It was a pretty sad day...

Russian Orloff cockerel

 - 4 weeks

6 weeks

7 weeks

8 weeks (plus brown leghorn pullet face!)

12 weeks - notice the curved sickle feathers & thick legs

I traded the Brown Leghorn pullet & Russian Orloff cockerel for three new babies, and I'm hoping for the best! My chicken man told me to get three just in case he's wrong on the sex of one. That way I don't have to deal with going through all of this again. 

Meet the Babies 

Harriet - Golden-Laced Wyandotte,1 week old

Susie B - Light Brahma, 1 week old

Louisa May - Cinnamon Queen, 2 weeks old

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If you start off with chicks, it's important to remember that there is a chance that you will end up with some cockerels. Make sure you are aware of the hatchery/store's policy for taking back males or have a backup plan in place in case you are unable to. Before I took Eleanor (brown leghorn cockerel) back to the farm supply store, I tried to rehome him and had no luck. It seems like not many people are looking for roosters in my area! 

Thanks for reading!