roo/hen?

[Guest]

This is my first season of hatching.

I\'ve hatched out some bantam Wheatons and am wondering at what point can you tell roo from hen?  I know in salmon Favorelles you can tell shortly after they start to feather as the feathering colors of the roos is so different from the hens.  I would expect the same in these Wheatons, but I am not seeing a diiference and some of them are several weeks old.  I\'ll post some picts tonight.

Karen

[Mike Gilbert]

Karen,
In wheatens and blue wheatens, the young male\'s breast feathers will have some dark mixed in with the tan.  Check the base of the new feathers coming in that area.    The females will have tan feathers only in the breast area.

[Guest]

Thanks Mike...that\'s the info that I needed!

Karen

[Guest]

I\'m new in W&BW, too. Attached are photos of 2 chicks at 3 weeks.
The 1st I believe is a female BW. The base of her breast feathers is cream. Does it seem to others that the 2nd is a male W? Its breast looks cream, but when you look at the feathers\' base, it has dark color there.
Thanks for help from experienced eyes!

[Jean]

I\'m pretty sure the second bird is a wheaten male, but I would call the first a blue wheaten male.  Usually the males have \"color\" in the feathers where the females are pretty plain.

I am not an expert on the colors as this is my second year of having them, so I could be wrong.  Maybe Barbara or Mike will put a definitive male or female on them.

Actually the first one looks like my daughters chicken, \"Baby\".  For some reason it adopted her as a surrogate mother and she carries the dang thing around and it just loves her.

Jean

[Mike Gilbert]

I think you are probably correct.    The first one looks like a blue-wheaten female to me, the second a wheaten male.   It\'s sometimes hard to say for sure from photos.    But if these birds are the same age, and the first one has no dark pinfeathers in the breast area, it is likely a pullet.

[Blue Egg Acres]

Hey Laura,

I think I\'ll have to agree with Jean. It\'s difficult to tell from a couple of the photos, but in the upper right pic it sure looks like a male to me.

How\'s your 2nd hatch coming along?

[Guest]

Update: The top chick turned out to be a Blue Wheaten male & the bottom chick a Wheaten male.
Barbara, Thanks for asking    Sorry to be so long in replying.
Unfortunately, 2nd hatch turned out hazardous. First, box was apparently dropped at store where I put it temporarily. Then, while out of town for a chicken club meeting, I got off on timing (& didn\'t have my calendar to check) and had my husband take the eggs from the turner too early. We had to later put them back in & then later take them back out--so humidity and temperature had some extra variation. Also, some other eggs I ordered and had to put in same incubator arrived dirty & though I cleaned them with a file, they may have brought in bacteria.
Anyway, it was a miracle any hatched after everything that happened! Two eggs hatched. Both had a number \'2\' on them. One is male & possibly a splash. The other is female & I think a splash. She was born with curled toes & injured one hock shortly after birth, which led to her also developing a twisted tibia. I have been sooooooo busy with her. In consultation with \"The Friendly Poultry Orthopedist\" D.C., I\'ve used chick shoes, hobbles, a \'chick chair\' body sling, taped her legs together some nights, put sponge spacers on her thighs, etc. I may need to put her down at some point but I hate to.
First hatch ended up 3 wheaten cockerels, 1 blue wheaten cockerel & just 1 wheaten pullet. How are we going to keep all those guys happy?  :stare:   I sure love all of them. They are beautiful and SO friendly and sweet. However, I will sell a couple cockerels. And I may try mixing in some other female chickens for contentment value if I keep them all together.
I hope everyone is having some nice hatches.
Laura