When do they go bald?

[RogerTheChicken]

just curious, I know they still have little tiny feathers on their head when they are older, but when do the get the caruncle and when do they go bald?

 

[cavemanrich]

They usually go bald when they go thru the chicken feather plucker. =D=D=D. But on the more serious side of conversation, My last old chick to go to the other side lived 13 years. She had all her feathers. So maybe they don't go bald....

 

[RogerTheChicken]

That's strange, and haha

 

[VikkiP]

I had a Mottled Black last year that I seriously thought was simply the tallest hen I had ever seen. It was just a very late blooming tom and still hadn't developed his caruncles or beard at 7 months. Others who were on schedule were distinct at 16 weeks. I just bought a 7 month old "hen" who was also a late blooming tom, he put on 4" of height and developed over 4 weeks. They all have their own growth rates.

If you really want to be sure, check the breast feathers for white tips on a bronze-based bird (hen) or black (tom), or check the gap between the pelvic bones under the tail, hens will be 2 finger widths apart.

 

[RogerTheChicken]

Any idea on sexing one week old poults?

 

[RogerTheChicken]

The guy at attwoods told me that bb bronze hens have arrows on their heads and the toms have random lines on their head, is this true? What about bb whites, any idea on sexing them, I have two of those and today I noticed that one of them was making a clucking noise and then a popping noise kinda like my four year old bb bronze Tom, Gilbert, does, Could it be a Tom?

 

[WalnutHill]

I never heard that about the head markings, but I go by the shape of the head, the relative thickness of the shanks, and in the first few days, the development of the wing feathers. Please let me know if you find that bit about the markings to be true.

Blocky head, thick legs, visible spur buds = signs of tom
Tapered head, delicate legs, dot for spur buds = signs of hen

These work only when comparing against other poults of the same variety and age.

Some of my toms have strutted as early as 3 days. They are hilarious as they don't have tails or even wing feathers to speak of!

 

[RogerTheChicken]

I never heard that about the head markings, but I go by the shape of the head, the relative thickness of the shanks, and in the first few days, the development of the wing feathers.  Please let me know if you find that bit about the markings to be true.

Blocky head, thick legs, visible spur buds = signs of tom
Tapered head, delicate legs, dot for spur buds = signs of hen

These work only when comparing against other poults of the same variety and age.

Some of my toms have strutted as early as 3 days.  They are hilarious as they don't have tails or even wing feathers to speak of!

I will let you know if it works, thanks for the advice, I will check tomorrow

 

[R2elk]

Any idea on sexing one week old poults?

There are hatcheries that are selling sexed day old broad breasted poults. They use feather sexing to determine which is which. This can only be done on days 1 thru 3. After that it is too late. The hens will have a second row of wing feathers while the toms will only have a single row of wing feathers.

Feather sexing will not work on all varieties of turkeys. I do know that it doesn't work on the Blue Slate turkeys as both the hens and the toms have two rows of wing feathers on days one thru 3.

Feather sexing does work on many varieties of chickens also but once again it does not work on all varieties.