Hello and Sexing chickens

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Hi
I'm new to this forum although have kept a few hens for years. I tend to focus on 1 breed and in the past have had orpingtons, marans and welsommers. Iknow have orpingtons again and am really enjoying them. I recently bought a trio of 14 week old dark chocolate bantams. They're doing well. I also bought 8 eggs for my incubator. I hatched 6 but how do you sex them? Some are more chocolate than others. Can you sex them by colour? Are the females less dark as chicks? Or do you wait and see?
 
Hi Tali,
We keep and have bred Orpingtons. They cannot be sexed at birth, they are not what is called an autosexing breed so they all look the same. Colour variations at this stage may be reflected in the colour of the bird finally, but that isn't certain. Our Orpingtons start to show at earliest about 8 weeks. I say start, because we had one that we were sure was a hen until 26 weeks and 2 days. You can start guessing at 8 weeks but you need far more time to be certain as you will find out. There are signs but nothing definate. In my opinion you can't be certain one is a cockerel until it crows.
 
Hi Tali
I have succesfully sexed all my hatched chicks during first week of life.There is no since in my method but it seems to work for me.If anything you can have fun with it.You can put some colored rings for boys and girls and see if you were wright.My method is very simple I look for fethers development(girls grow them much faster,especialy on the wings)after a week is visible difrence in both sexes.The boys tend to stand very upright so they posture is difrent to.Girls have bigger appetites they tend to eat for longer than boys.Be very obserwant and have fun.As said in the begining this method works very well for me,not nessesery for others:D
 
Hi,
I purchased 2 weeks ago a female chocolate orpington bantam from Durham hens.I now feel a bit stupid as I didn't ask how the seller knew it is female I just took her word for it as I wanted an autosexing breed-I also purchased a cream legbar and a silkie/sussex cross that I was told are female.
They have a web site and so may well be worth a phone call to ask how to sex them assuming you really can. I paid £15 for a week old chick so I certainly hope so!
Jo
 
Thanks so much for the replies. I thought autosexing by colour would be too easy!! I will be interested to see how they develop and how chocolate the paler chicks become. I got my pullets and cockerel from a place near stockport. They were £28 per hen and cockerel free. I like to visit as I've been to a couple of places where I would not buy as the hens were too mixed up and although I might have bought a chocolate orpington bantam I wanted to know what the next generation would be ...
I've bought eggs from cockerdoodle quack and am very happy with the results- large black orpingtons and more chocolate bantam eggs so they won't be related to what we've got already. I'm really enjoying my hens
 
mine are about 15 weeks i think and still cant figer out for sure iv gt people waiting for them if girls im totally useless at sexing
 
Hi Newtoducks,
Cream Legbars and many crosses are autosexing. We bought female CLB's at three days old. Not so sure about the Orpington Bantam, but the lowest of the pecking order in a hatch is always female in my limited experience, assuming there are any females of course. So maybe that's how they do it?
 
I rang Durham Hens this morning to ask how they sex their choc orpingtons and was told "it's a trade secret" I thought she was having me on but ,no,I could get no more information although I am assured that I have a female!
Jo
 
There is a metod thru went sexing at 1 day old.You squize the went and look(i gues)for cock penis.Only very expirienced people can do that and its not a 100% method either.
 
I've see something on TV about that. It was 'guess my job' type of programme years ago. They develop a condition called chicken sexers thumb due to spending all day pressing the pelvis of chicks. There is also a one year apprenticeship before they are allowed to sex unsupervised. Sounds a bit far fetched I know but last year the Britsh Hen Welfare Trust did a TV programme where they were rehoming a cockerel that had gone unnoticed into the battery cages and then couldn't stand upright because the cages were only tall enough for hens -poor chap. So clearly the chicken sexer got it wrong there. So battery hens are not an autosexing breed either.
 
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