Male or female

[chicken lodge]

Hi Everyone,
We managed to hatch 5 eggs in the end and all are growing very fast and seem to be doing really well.
We have them in a safe place (in a barn) and they are still under the heat lamp that has now gone a little higher, due to the size of the babies, and they are aprox 6 weeks old.
The question i have for you all, is how do i tell the boys from the girls, some are much bigger than the others so that helps i assume, but they hatched over a 10 day period so that might account for that ?.
Also we are feeding them chick crumb, when can i start to change to corn.
Sorry one more question, when is the best time to turn off the heat lamp, as i have seen the weather and its going to get cold and i am a little concerned that if i do it to soon i might lose them.Many many thanks, for all the advice i might get.

 

[greatbarnet]

Congratulations on your hatch. I recently did the same and it was a very exciting time.

Re the food, I'd just go by what the packaging says. I don't know if different brands have different recommendations but I started mixing the chick crumb with Allen & Page Freeholder Growers pellets from about 6 weeks old. It took about a week or two I think til they were just on the growers. To start with they either weren't sure how to eat pellets or they didn't like them (they just threw them around and didn't actually eat them!) so for a few weeks I put the pellets in some warm water to make a sort of porridgey mash and they loved it like that. I understand they shouldn't have corn until they are old enough to go onto layers (from 16-20 weeks old). Mine are 13 weeks and haven't had corn yet.

Re sexing them, I found several resources online that talked about different rates of feathers coming through and so on. Mine all hatched within hours of each other and they feathered up exactly the same. One is now a boy, so I don't think you can always go on feathering! But his feet were bigger than the others from a few days old and he behaved differently (he was more of a bully) so with hindsight I could have guessed he was a boy. However his comb and wattles did noticeably redden up and start sprouting from about 7 weeks. They are now 13 weeks and it is blindingly obvious he is a boy. But I think it depends a lot on what breed they are, and if yours hatched over 10 days their growth with be quite substantially different I imagine! If you put some photos up people may have some guesses for you. But they will be guesses!

Provided your brooder is large enough for the chicks to get away from the heat if they need to, they will tell you if they still need it. It's best to have it at one end of the cage (rather than in the middle) so they have a range of temperatures to choose from. I've read that if they are too hot they will be as far from the lamp as possible and up against the sides of the brooder panting. If they still go under it, then they enjoy the heat. Even if they only pop under there every now and then. Before I removed it altogether I think I reduced the hours it was on (eg I only had it on overnight). I did remove it too early at first - they got all miserable and lethargic and when I put it back in they perked up instantly. The forecast is that its going to get a lot colder this week, so you might be better off leaving them with the extra heat I would think, and certainly if any of them aren't yet fully feathered.

Good luck with them all!

 

[Chuck]

They can have corn from around 6 weeks as long as they have chick grit to help grind it down. Not too much, just enough to vary the diet.

If I rear chicks under a broody hen, the chicks get corn almost from day one as I throw a bit to the hen as I don't see why she should be forced to eat chick crumb entirely and the chicks dive on it. If I rear them in a brooder, I leave it till around six weeks before giving them any ! Not a lot of logic in that so mostly done out of habit !
Chick crumb to 6-8 weeks, then over to growers which is slightly lower in protein until they are nearly ready to lay, or around 20 weeks when they go onto a layers ration. Corn is usually a supplementary feed for most breeders but not all, as some feed all corn.

 

[chrismahon]

At 3 weeks I noticed some of ours are developing spurs. Just a little growth easily felt rather than seen. Obviously they are boys. Combs not that big at the moment and the Leghorn has no comb or wing feathers but spurs. The TNN's have started to redden already, so they must be boys. So I guess the indicators vary breed to breed.

 

[Chuck]

Re. sexing - size is a poor indicator, especially if they are different breeds and ages. Some breeds (Leghorns and other Mediterranean breeds) start to grow their combs very quickly in the males (3-4 weeks) so it's quite easy to tell. Later, at 10-12 weeks you can get an idea from the feathers on neck and where the tail joins the body as they are pointed on the males and more rounded on the females. Experience helps but we often have difficulty here from photos, telling males from females.

Re. heat - go by the chicks and their reaction and place the heat as suggested by greatbarnet.