[Laurie1203]

Hi all

We were given a young bantam on Saturday to go with our lavender pekin who had lost her mate. The trouble is we have no information about it (long story) including how old it is and if it is male or female.

Reading around the internet I can see that sexing seems to be really difficult until they are older so at least getting an estimate of how old it is would be a step forward.  I think there is a high chance that it is a West Sussex bantam. At the moment it is completely white so one question is, if it is a West Sussex and will eventually get the black feathers around its neck etc what age would that change occur?  He/she is a good size - probably already as tall as my little pekin but I know the West Sussex bantams are a bigger breed. Despite the size it still makes more of a chick noise so far too so I was wondering in general what age they start making the normal adult noise.

I was thinking if I knew roughly how old it was I would then have a better chance of telling the sex if for example it wasn't showing male characteristics or features by so many months.

Any ideas to help would be most appreciated.

Thanks for reading.

L

[splash101]

Can you  post any photos? someone maybe able to help

[Laurie1203]

Thank you - I will try to get a close up of it and post but keeping it still could be a problem as it  is quite scared of us yet!

[Casey76]

I've never heard of a West Sussex chicken... unless it is a proprietary name from a hatchery.

The breed is "Sussex" and the Light refers to the colour (also called ermine in other breeds)

So a light sussex is white with a black collar and black primary wing and tail feathers.
A buff Sussex is a buff colour all over with black collar and  wing and tail feathers.
A silver sussex is like a light in everse, so it is black all over with a white collar/wing and tail.  You can also get speckled Sussex and coronation Sussex.

Much rarer are white, brown and red Sussex.

[Laurie1203]

Arrr thank you for that information. That is what the farmer said it might be but I think maybe he was confused about the "west" bit lol.

If it was a light Sussex I am assuming it would start of white like ours. At what age would the black feathers tend to start growing in?

[ANHBUC]

If it is a light sussex bantam it should have the black feathering around the neck, tail and some on the wings as soon as they loose their downey feathers.

There are some photos of mine on this post showing them as chicks and again at 5 weeks.

http://chat.allotment-garden.org/index.php?topic=92677.0

Just found this site which has pictures of all the different sussex colours.  If yours is all white it is probably a white sussex.

www.feathersite.com/Poultry/CGP/Sussex/BRKSussex.html

[Laurie1203]

It sounds as if it should have the black feathers by now then if it was going to get them as it seems to have adult feathers even thought still making the more "tweety" sounds of a baby.

I tried to post some pictures without success - will have another try!

[ANHBUC]

Mine are about 14 weeks now and still make the tweety sounds most of the time.

Here is a link about posting pictures on the forum.

http://chat.allotment-garden.org/index.php?topic=19476.0

 

[Laurie1203]

Thanks so much for all your kind help. Here is another attempt!

[ANHBUC]

It does look quite young Laurie1203 as it looks to still have some of its fluffy chick feathers.  Be careful if the weather turns cold or wet with it still being young it will not cope well.  It does look like the white sussex in the other link.  Hopefully it will be a girl.  Very pretty whatever it turns out to be.   

[Laurie1203]

Another picture - difficult to get close up ones as it is still quite scared.

[Laurie1203]

Thanks so much ANHBUC for all your kind help - I really appreciate it.

Thanks for the advice, I will certainly keep a close eye.  We are keeping it inside in the warm at nights at the moment as until our original starts being nice to it I don't want to shut them up in such a small space at night where it couldn't get out of the way of her. We have them in a pen together during the day - they are free ranging in a garden courtyard so we have put a temporary barrier across to keep them in the same area to get used to each other.

Hope old would you guess it was?

[ANHBUC]

It looks similar to mine at 5 weeks but the tail is more developed so possibly 6 weeks.

[Laurie1203]

Excellent - thank you!

[PaulineM]

It looks like a leghorn hen to me