Help with sexing araucana chicks

I have a whole heap of lavender araucana chicks here of various ages (between about 10 weeks and 16 weeks old) and i'm struggling to tell whos what :rolleyes:

I have some not-so-great photos here of their heads / combs (taken at night cause thats the only time they stay still!!)

Mum and Dad for comparison...

various shots of chicks....

I think the first and last are boys but i'm not sure on the others, most are like the 3rd and 4th pics

Attached files

Not being to be able to see their faces clearly I'd say anything with a pale face and no wattle growth under the beak or comb growth and reddness on top-is a pullet!
I'd agree with the first and last being roosters, especially if they are the 16 week olds.

I have 2 in the 16 week grp like pic 1 - wrong comb for an araucana [}] which is a bit annoying cause both dads and mums look good.

pic 5 is the 12 week old and 1 of the 9/10 week olds is just like it.

its the chick in pic 2 i'm really not sure on - either a girl (16 week) or a boy with a comb like dads but not much redness yet.

all of the others (7 of them [^]) appear to have little or no redness / comb development - so i'm hoping pullets

They are either boys or girls! [}]

Don't ask me, I sold 3 Arau pullets at about 16 weeks and had to eat major humble pie and replace the "pullet" that started crowing [:0]

i found mine too hard to sex by comb, so waited until the hackle feathers came through... all roosters!

I've been breeding Lavender Araucanas for about three years. When I first started out, I had a batch with very BAD yellowing. Right from 4 weeks old hey presto the males were obvious - they had great bits of yellow on them.

Then I got a better rooster with very good colour type. Guess what - now I can't actually sex the rooster chicks until they crow! []

I've got a friend who was going to give me a nice araucana rooster.... until it laid an egg. [:0]

Definitely one of the more challenging breeds to determine gender.

I'd guess Roo, pullet (although not a good photo to tell from), pullet, pullet, roo. The first and last are *definitely* roos. I would definitely like to see a 3/4 angle shot of 2,3 and 4 though, taken directly at their eye level. As the one in pic 2 is 16 weeks, I think it is likely to be a pullet tho.

I've just had 2 clutches come out with a 9 pullet / 4 roo ratio (lost 4 chicks in a spell of appalling weather tho), so yay for the season of girls!

I'm getting pretty accurate at it now and can usually pick them at 6-8 weeks - it's only taken 8 years of Araucana breeding to get to that stage By all means do post again and let me know if I'm wrong! I'll bet you a batch of fertile eggs in the spring!

My main guide at 6-8 weeks is the colour and amount of feather around the eyes - roos are cleaner and (often) redder under the eye and in the cheek area. Your roo in photo 1 shows this 'clean' area very clearly.

From about 10 weeks you can tell if you take a close look at the hackle feathers - Araucanas fortunately have very definitive hackle feather shapes - the hackle feathers on the roos are very pointed and those on the pullets are rounded.

I guess i'll be heading out tomorrow night with a torch to check hackle feathers then...

The 16 week group - the 2 obvious roo's are already bigger then Mum hen; but the youngest ones, 1 of them is tiny compared to the other, I think a pullet but she has feathers down her legs [:0] who knows where they have come from [}]

sorry - i'm rambling a bit, I just find it interesting how I get the various different combs and feathering etc. in the chicks from 2 roosters and 2 hens who all have the same combs and no leg feathers []

sorry - i'm rambling a bit, I just find it interesting how I get the various different combs and feathering etc. in the chicks from 2 roosters and 2 hens who all have the same combs and no leg feathers []
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That's genetics for you!

It just shows the inheritance of the various traits, like comb shape, feathered legs etc are not pure in the parents (homozygous), or shows the affect when two different genes meet in the off spring and one is dominant over the the other and is what you see, but the other of the pair is hidden-waiting to pop up in the next generation!