sexing the chickies

[hildare]

is there a good way (without crossing the line into chicken intimacy) to look at these buff orps and pick the pullets from the cockrels? i thought we could tell by looking at general size and comb fullness/color, but now i'm not sure about my choices. hmmmm.

[goddessjulia]

I don't think so, not with buff orpingtons. in some breeds the female chicks are a different color than the males, but I don't think that's true for those. they'll be pretty birds though! they'll reveal themselves when they get a little older, if you don't want to mash their parts out of them to figure it out now

[Shahbazin]

Originally Posted by hildare

is there a good way (without crossing the line into chicken intimacy) to look at these buff orps and pick the pullets from the cockrels? i thought we could tell by looking at general size and comb fullness/color, but now i'm not sure about my choices. hmmmm.

How old are they now? At some point between 2-3 months, the chicks will replace their chick down & juvenile feathers & grow adult feathers over their back & hip area, & that's when you can tell - pullet back feathers are matte, smooth edged, & rounded, & cockerels have shiny, fringed, pointy feathers (called "saddle feathers," in males, often slightly darker, even in buff birds)- you can sort of part the baby feathers, look for new feather quills, & if at least 1/2 - 3/4" is grown out, you can tell. You can certainly have robust pullets (often early layers!), & wimpy cockerels (bottom of the pecking order), so the comb size/leg bone diameter thing isn't always a good predictor.