Breed gender differences and an egg tooth

[Kajoda929]

First thing I want to ask about in this thread is something I am confused by...I have never heard of an egg tooth NOT falling off in the first few days of life outside the shell, yet with the breed I have here, I had many die before pipping externally because they didn't develop an egg tooth at all and one of the three that survived this hatch(now 17 days old) still has yet to fully shed hers. Out of my 36 chickens, not including the 9 that I no longer have, not one has ever kept an egg tooth past day 6 and I only say that long to account for shipping on some of them. Has anyone had that happen before? Either case. Kerping it longer or not developing one at all? This is a picture of the one that still has hers...It is diminishing, finally, but VERY slowly, even now.

My second part of this post is something that I have noticed on far too many threads and it has been a point of frustration for many members. I have seen many members tell others that, based on comb size, they can tell male/female in...Well, any breed, by their logic. So I would like to prove those people wrong. For the record, I was not one of the ones being told gender, but I know many members on here and also know that many of the people commenting were giving out incorrect information since, as many of you will know, EACH BREED has different characteristics.

Now. I sexed the three chicks that I hatched 16, 17, and 18 days ago the day the last one hatched because I could tell on THIS breed which was which. I have four breeds of chickens. I couldn't do the same with my Ameraucana, Sumatra, or the last, which I don't believe where "labeled" correctly"...At the age they are now, today, I can say with absolute certainty that I was correct. The one that I thought wasn't going to make it is a roo and the two that needed little and no help are pullets. The older two that I had, however, I sexed by wings and, while I was correct, I thought I wasn't when the pullet's comb got almost as big as the roo's. With everyone on this site talking about how pullets always have pretty small combs, I figured there was no way and that she was sick(somehow, despite amazing food, constant fresh water, and hand fed treats) because her comb was extremely pale. Well, fast forward a few more weeks from all that. I had realized that the shape of ger comb was different, so I finally did better research. There aren't many pictures online of the breed, but my suspicions were confirmed. About a week before she ended up with vent prolapse. I still don't understand how that happened, being so young, but there was absolutely no denying gender at that point.

The point of me bringing this up is that not all breeds have smaller combed pullets/hens. Stop telling people that only roos have large combs.

The below pictures will be of the three younger chicks, then my pullet about a month ago, roo the same day, then the pullet and roo together also the same day.

 

[ronott1]

So very true about combs and wattles!

Generally for normal combed breeds with straight combs, you can tell gender at about 6 weeks old

I was on a thread where someone thought a California white was a cockerel when the comb was not that big for a California White! they have huge combs lol.

I have had chicks hatch without an egg tooth. One in particular was still alive in the shell at day 23 when I checked for life. The chick did not have an egg tooth and was very healthy

 

[NatJ]

The point of me bringing this up is that not all breeds have smaller combed pullets/hens. Stop telling people that only roos have large combs.

I think it is generally true that pullets/hens have smaller combs when you compare them to males of the SAME BREED and SAME AGE. Otherwise, relative comb size doesn't tell you much. And I've seen plenty of Easter Egger and Dark Cornish and similar cockerels with small combs (because pea combs tend to be small anyway.)

I consider redness of comb to be a better indicator, because cockerels usually do have a redder comb--except when you get the ones with black combs

But I really, really like to see photos of several chicks of the same breed and age--it makes it so much easier!

 

[Kajoda929]

I think it is generally true that pullets/hens have smaller combs when you compare them to males of the SAME BREED and SAME AGE. Otherwise, relative comb size doesn't tell you much. And I've seen plenty of Easter Egger and Dark Cornish and similar cockerels with small combs (because pea combs tend to be small anyway.)

I consider redness of comb to be a better indicator, because cockerels usually do have a redder comb--except when you get the ones with black combs

But I really, really like to see photos of several chicks of the same breed and age--it makes it so much easier!

I agree...The kicker is when you end up with a mix(again, not mine) so that none are the same and are told incorrect genders when asking for advice, but are only given advice based on comb size...When you don't even know what breed they are, it's hard to say what size is normal for them, ya know? Like I said, this was more of a generalized post on that because so many members and chicken enthusiasts know about the breeds they have and that's it, so they give advice based on their breeds, but the advice isn't accurate for all breeds.