Is it too soon to tell?

Jaye · Post by **Jaye** » Fri Jun 10, 2016 1:00 pm

I have two little "visitors" that my Silkie is raising at the moment. As of today they are three weeks old. One is (supposed to be) a Polish and the other is an Ameraucana. This morning my gut told me "that one looks male". It's happened a couple of times already now when I look at the darker chick. It's too soon to know though, right?

I know, I know - what difference does it make if they are both going back home at about eight weeks. Well, because if they are both girls and neither of them make the grade in the owner's breeding program; i.e., they turn out to be pet quality, maybe I could convince hubs that we should buy them and keep them, since our small flock of mature hens is starting to dwindle, and so are the number of eggs they supply. But if one is a male, that puts an end to that plan, because it's much easier to keep two young chickens that have grown up together than it is to split them up and only keep one.
So, here they are at three weeks less a day old. Sorry the pictures aren't that clear, but they just never stand still.

Ontario Chick · Post by **Ontario Chick** » Fri Jun 10, 2016 1:19 pm

I would say the Ameraucana has "feminine face", bit worried about the thick legs though.
Hope it's a pullet, very pretty! :)

Jaye · Post by **Jaye** » Fri Jun 10, 2016 1:36 pm

Thanks for the feedback, OC.
Yes,you're right about the legs -they were my first "uh-oh". They've been that way since about a week or so old. I just keep telling myself that they aren't *that* chunky.

And, like you said, she does have a feminine face. The thing that threw up the second red flag for me yesterday was her comb: it seemed to grow up her face overnight. At least it's pale, and I hope it will stay that way.

kenya · Post by **kenya** » Fri Jun 10, 2016 2:47 pm

The grey looks like a male to me, but need a close up of the comb to really tell.
The other one hard to tell but is not pure polish, some kind of frizzle, very cute. The ameraucana should have slate legs not yellow, so question if it's pure as well. Nice colour though.

Jaye · Post by **Jaye** » Fri Jun 10, 2016 3:13 pm

Kenya - you're right! So totally missed the obvious because I was so focused on trying to figure out the gender. Now I don't know what breeds they are at all! The thing is, the person who I am renting them from had a mixed bunch of day-olds from her incubator hatch all living in the same brooder, and there were lots of everything, including quail. I must have not listened carefully enough to the names of the breeds these two were. So, the dark one could just as easily be a marans or cochin something entirely different. She has quite a few breeds, and this one could even have been an oopsie.
I will try to get a close-up of the comb tonight.

Post by **WLLady** » Fri Jun 10, 2016 3:37 pm

so i think your ameraucana is actually an easter egger, and probably going to be blue laced or a laced splash, and is a boy-i would doubt marans unless it's clean legged and blue marans with lacing like i've never seen in a marans before....it does look pea combish to me (if i squint and blow the photo up on my computer LOL) but the head is very square-length and height are similar, where the girls (in my limited experience) tend to be sleeker and more rectangular shaped heads, longer than they are high....and the girls muffs just seem to stand out more to me (probably because of the head shape). the other brownish one looks more "girly" to me, but looks like it has a frizzle thing going on, unless the wind was blowing feathers forward from behind or something. also strikes me as boyish....sorry.

on a good note, i have been wrong many many times before......!

Jaye · Post by **Jaye** » Fri Jun 10, 2016 3:46 pm

You're right - must be an easter egger. That would be fine with me. It's too bad that it may be male though. That's a deal-breaker, unfortunately.
The other little one with the crest is a frizzle for sure. So maybe she's a buff frizzle polish. I really have no idea. All I jknow is that she's really cute.
Oh well.

Time to stop getting attached.
Maybe this thread should be about guessing the breed or mix instead. LOL

Ontario Chick · Post by **Ontario Chick** » Sat Jun 11, 2016 9:58 am

kenya wrote:QR_BBPOST The ameraucana should have slate legs not yellow, so question if it's pure as well. Nice colour though.

Jaye wrote:QR_BBPOST You're right - must be an easter egger. That would be fine with me. It's too bad that it may be male though. That's a deal-breaker, unfortunately.

I don't believe I missed that.....was so intent on sexing, completely missed the leg color, pretty funny :)

windwalkingwolf · Post by **windwalkingwolf** » Sat Jun 11, 2016 1:12 pm

Jaye can you get a clear picture of the EEs face? I can't tell if his comb starts too low for it to be a girl, or if his nostrils are slightly cavernous. If it's the latter, it might still be a girl, just with some polish blood to confuse the issue LOL

Jaye · Post by **Jaye** » Sun Jun 12, 2016 1:31 pm

Sorry everyone: I think I may be partly to blame for the confusion, since my post was kind of confusing. Okay, it's not the post so much as me: I'm confused. I second-guessed myself, based on what I was seeing instead of what I thought I was told, which was that one was a frizzle Ameraucana and the other was a Polish. I assumed that the little one with the crest was the Polish, and the blue one was the Ameraucana. Yesterday and this morning I took another closer look at them, and I think the crested one is in fact supposed to be Ameraucana and the blue one is Polish, because the little blonde one has dark legs - but not slate, exactly; they have kind of a green tinge to them under some lighting conditions. So still an EE, I think. Just not the chick I was thinking was an EE. What I don't understand is why the "Polish" doesn't have a crest. WWW, I tried getting some better photos of the dark chick's comb, but (a) my phone camera is crappy and doesn't seem to be able to focus, and (b) she/he just never stands still long enough. Here are some pics from yesterday anyway. Whatever they are, I think they're cute.