Sexing Chanteclers

I have 6 Chanteclers that are about 10 weeks old and am having a hard time sexing them. With most of the other chickens I have, it was pretty easy but I'm struggling a bit with these.

Either I have all the same sex or I'm not looking at the right features. About all I can see is that some hold their tails a bit higher than others and maybe seem a bit wider in the body. I don't notice a real difference in combs or any other features. Am I missing something?

Any difference in comb color? Leg thickness? Attitudes? Hm... those cushion comb creatures can be so difficult. I was nearly 100% wrong with my last guess on my BLRW chicks. Now that they are about 16 weeks I can tell pretty well who's who, but good grief.

look at the wattles? also much thicker legs in the cockerels, maybe a little darker yellow too.

By 10 weeks you should be able to tell by feather. Legs are a pretty good indicator too, but I find feather the best. I find with mine wattle and comb have been the last difference in them. Just my experience.

The pullets stay barred much longer than the cockerels. Then they go straight to pencilling. The cockerels are often darker than the pullets, but not always and they get a real `blotchy` look to the feathers that are coming in (how is that for a technical term? ). Their new feathers are usually more of a solid colour, black or reddish, and they start to lose the barring.

Post some pictures, I am sure we could help with most of them. I always have a couple that take a bit longer to be 'for sure' about.

Sorry, I guess I wasn't clear. They are white, so the barring isn't an option. I looked closer at legs and don't really see a difference, nor in wattles. You can see pictures of them here...

https://wcps.canadian-forum.com/t1143-it-stopped-raining-last-night-pictures

I still can't really see a difference unless they are all the same?

I think you will need closer up of the chanties themselves to get more help.
I have 4 here that I wasnt sure about until I left for the weekend then came home, now I have 3 boys and 1 girl, not the best of odds, and the girl came from Chantecler eh? So of my hatch of 3 I ended up with 3 boys, just about as bad as my pilgrim hatches...
I can see the difference in the combs and waddles for sure, plus the little pullet is much finer featured then the boys in the head and legs.

Sorry that was bad of me to make the assumtion that everyone should have Partridge!

I could tell my whites right from the start as the girls were always way more delicate than the boys. I always had an idea. The girls showed willow legs when young as well (not ideal, I know) so that was another sign for me. Sorry I was not help at all.

LOL, now worries Coopslave, any advice is appreciated.

I guess I'll have to take a much closer look at them all and do some comparisons. Right now they all pretty much look the same. Maybe it's all boys... or all girls.

The pics look like pullets to me but, as Hidden says, it's hard to be sure.

Fowler wrote:The pics look like pullets to me but, as Hidden says, it's hard to be sure.

That was my first thought as well. I am very new to the whites though. You may have gotten lucky and got all pullets. You will need a cockerel then, I just happen to have one for you!

coopslave wrote:

Fowler wrote:The pics look like pullets to me but, as Hidden says, it's hard to be sure.

That was my first thought as well. I am very new to the whites though. You may have gotten lucky and got all pullets. You will need a cockerel then, I just happen to have one for you!

Yeah, I took another look yesterday and I really don't see any differences. Maybe 1 had thicker legs than the others but I could be imagining it.

Not sure about a trade but I may be getting rid of them before winter. We're doing a bit of travelling this fall and spring and I'm not sure I'm going to carry any birds through the winter.

coopslave wrote:By 10 weeks you should be able to tell by feather. Legs are a pretty good indicator too, but I find feather the best. I find with mine wattle and comb have been the last difference in them. Just my experience.

The pullets stay barred much longer than the cockerels. Then they go straight to pencilling. The cockerels are often darker than the pullets, but not always and they get a real `blotchy` look to the feathers that are coming in (how is that for a technical term? ). Their new feathers are usually more of a solid colour, black or reddish, and they start to lose the barring.

Post some pictures, I am sure we could help with most of them. I always have a couple that take a bit longer to be 'for sure' about.

Totally agree!

Sometimes the females have a more feminine face, fine features....but white ones no idea

It's tricky to sex the whites. The young pullets will have a bit more refinement in their head (bit narrower, comb pad not as broad). The young cockerals will have a broader head, wider comb pad and their combs will start plumping up and getting a bit more red in them and usually more rambunctious than the girls. My very scientific way of sexing last year was to sit in the pen, watch for the ones sparring and pick them out. I had one pen of rambunctious sparring chickens (boys) and one pen of more sedate, get along chickens (girls). Was 90% accurate LOL.

actually shouldn't say sparring so much as the little boys game of "I jump on you, then you jump on me".

I don't usually have too much of a problem with sexing Chanteclers myself. From your pics I would say girls but sometimes you get those ones that are late maturing.

I'm sorry to hear that you ended up with all boys there Jayme, there was one I was thinking might be a pullet, now the weird thing is that all 5 that I got from you are roosters. I'm really liking one of them but I think I'll have lots of chicken dinners this fall.

ars800, I totally agree with you - sexing white Chanties is a challenge! This is my first year hatching & raising them, and it is taking forever to feel really sure about who is male and who is female. Much harder than any of my other breeds.
I have to agree with those who mentioned it is best to go by their overall body build and legs. I guess it will get easier with experience!

Nah, it never gets easier with experience. Just when you think you have it figured out, you will find that very late maturing cockerel.
They are possible to sex fairly accurately by feathers at a couple of days. I normally go by the tail feathers later on. The pullets tails will be relatively rounded when fanned out, the cockerels will have 2 longer feathers when their tail is fanned out. I think it has been fairly accurate, but my partner could perhpas answer that better.

Okay Liz, how do you tell accurately and have we been accurate?

What I do for accurate sexing is phone my Chanty partner-Coyote Acres- to come for a 4 hour drive and sex my young ones, I find that is the most accurate way. As you raise enough chicks it does get easier it seems the feather sexing is the most accurate so far. KRL has a good eye for sexing as well I will rephrase that KRL is quite capable of telling male and female Chantecler apart