# Male or female?



## Biring (Sep 24, 2020)

Can anyone help me determine the sex of this 8-week-old gamefowl/village chicken cross? What should I be looking for?


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## Biring (Sep 24, 2020)

How about this one?


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## Biring (Sep 24, 2020)

No.3


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

Last one is a boy. Helps to know his age though too. 

You're looking for a comb getting bigger than a sib and redder. 

Pic 1 I think is a boy, love the markings on that bird.

The second one looks like it might be female. I can't see the comb but compare it to the bird in the first pic if they're the same age. 

I'm having second thoughts on the first one being male.


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## Biring (Sep 24, 2020)

They are all the same age, same mother and almost certainly same father (although the pics of the third bird were maybe taken a week or two ago). I think the first one might be female but I’m not 100% sure. I thought the second might be male because of its pointy neck feathers, but again I’m not sure. The third is looking more and more male every day.


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## Longcrow (Jul 3, 2020)

_80% certain on the first 2 being female, chestnut color on chest, small comb on 1st one, small comb, brown color on 2nd means it was a brown striped/chipmunk colored chick which usually indicates a female.
The 3rd one is a male, 100% sure._


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## Biring (Sep 24, 2020)

All three were "chipmunk" chicks.


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

If it makes any difference, Longcrow, they're mixes. Not pure.


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## Poultry Judge (Jul 15, 2020)

Also , more antique game strains mature slower. The juvenile feathering can be an indicator but is generally misleading until about six months, (just my experience). These Games, crosses and otherwise are beautiful interesting birds. Biring lives in the cradle of Poultry domestication, especially for Jungle Fowl. Every bird we have in the West has it's origins somewhere in the East. I hope you can keep sharing pictures and local history of your birds with the forum. Think of the genetic history contained in those birds!


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## Biring (Sep 24, 2020)

I’ve been reading a bit about genetics and breeding and I now realise these three can’t be full sibs. Their mother has a single comb, as does the cockerel I thought was father to all three. But No.3 has a pea comb, as does a neighbour’s cockerel. That cockerel only appeared in time to father the last two eggs (of eight, five of which hatched).


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

Except that could be hidden genetics from past breedings and has nothing to do with current parentage.


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## Biring (Sep 24, 2020)

Really? Maybe what I read was an over-simplification, but it said that there were two genes for pea combs and if either are present then the bird will have a pea comb (or walnut, if a rose comb gene is also present). It implied that a bird with a single comb could not have any pea comb genes. I have many questions about combs (and more) so perhaps I should start a new thread, once I’ve rounded up the birds and taken photos.


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## Biring (Sep 24, 2020)

Looking back through old photos I noticed that Father no.1 also has a pea comb, not a single comb as I thought, so those three chicks could indeed be full sibs.


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

Welcome to figuring out genetics. It's can scramble your brains. 

Just keep this one going. If it was several pages long already then it would be a good idea but you've got several pics already here so it could flow well enough.


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## Biring (Sep 24, 2020)

Here is a photo of all four surviving sibs (I got their attention by playing a recording of a crested serpent eagle call!).


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

Adorable picture but that was mean. I'm surprised they stayed put after that.


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## Biring (Sep 24, 2020)

They hear it for real most days. They usually run for cover. In this instance they were already out of sight from aerial predators.


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

BTW, still love the markings of the two light colored birds.


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## Biring (Sep 24, 2020)

I suspect the dark coloured male(?) will end up as the prettiest.


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

Yeah, that one in the back is a little boy. 

I wonder where the heck everyone is this morning.


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## Poultry Judge (Jul 15, 2020)

I love seeing Biring's pics! Farm work calls this morning, I have to get back to putting a new starter in the farm dozer. It just doesn't want to fix itself.


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

I do not envy you that job, PJ. I had to replace the starter relay on my zero turn. My body was not happy about all of the floor crawling to get up under the machine. You might have more room but it's bigger by a lot which makes it's exponentially more difficult.


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## Poultry Judge (Jul 15, 2020)

So, I put the rebuilt starter in and I still can't get it to run yet. It's super frustrating because I need to move it out of the barn because there is other equipment behind it I need to get to. Sometimes I get so tired of old farm equipment. We have four tractors and a dozer and the newest one is 1972.


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

Not knowing tracked equipment can you drag it out with a tractor? 

Now I understand why barns have doors on both ends.


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## Poultry Judge (Jul 15, 2020)

Yes, I will probably have to move it with another tractor. My barn is 50 x 80 and has multiple door on both ends, but you know how farm equipment gets stacked up. I try to keep everything under roof so it is out of the weather, except for the hay wagons.


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## Biring (Sep 24, 2020)

I saw this photo of a wild red junglefowl chick in a facebook group - it looks pretty much like one of my peeps did at that age


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## Poultry Judge (Jul 15, 2020)

Thanks, that is a good illustrative pic. of some of the things we have been discussing. Most Games here in the States look very much like this as young chicks. It's hard to derive much information regarding traits or sexing when they look so similar. So, there was great interest in this a hundred years ago. Jungle Fowl were new to those breeders and they didn't have access to any history so they started to sketch out the traits that they could see, in great detail. They sketched the patterns although they change so quickly, and they counted wing feathers, staggering etcetera. They didn't have access to which traits were dominant or recessive, they could only make careful observations from generation to generation and try to make decisions regarding how they wanted to breed their new crosses.


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## Poultry Judge (Jul 15, 2020)

robin416 said:


> Not knowing tracked equipment can you drag it out with a tractor?
> 
> Now I understand why barns have doors on both ends.


And a nearby pond to push it in when you can't take it any more!


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

LOL That's when I know it's time for me to walk away. Although with that beast it might be more satisfying to blow it up.


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## Poultry Judge (Jul 15, 2020)

I need to get rid of about five pieces of equipment and get one good newer skid steer. It's just the cost issue.


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