I have observed very deeply, watching and watching, comparing several different hatches of chicks, these being of the standard size, light Brahma and Cochins, the Cochins being blue and splash.
At a very early age, there are clear differences between the cockerals and the pullets, of which I have pictures to show the differences. Look closely and you will see the difference of the breeds with the primary (flight (longer)) feathers and tail feathers. Upon maturation to an age where clearly the gender (i.e., wattles and comb) is apparent, these observations have held true. I only have had light Brahma and Cochin for a great comparison. I have noticed, as well though, that these same differences are apparent with the buff Orpingtons that I have incubated and raised. Just some interesting observations that if anyone is interested in looking at, carry forward. These chicks that you see in the pictures were born of the January 31 incubation. The pictures were taken when the chicks were 11 days old. They are now close to the 30 day old mark, and these clear differences in feathers are still extremely apparent. Enjoy the pictures, the pullets all now have very heavy feathering on the tails, on both sexes, much larger than the cockerals. Do have that most wonderful and awesome day, with that great health, Cindi
This is the blue Cochin cockeral, take note of the short wing feathers and very small tailfeathers
This is the blue Cochin pullet, notice the longer wingfeathers and the bigger tailfeathers
This is a splash Cochin cockeral, I had a high number of splash in this hatch, note again, the shorter wing and tail feathers
Another shot of a splash Cochin cockeral
This is a shot of the splash Cochin pullet, notice feathers
This is a different splash Cochin pullet, notice feathers, particularly noticeable on this gal is the long flight feathers
Now on to the light Brahmas, very, very noticeable with this breed, meaning the differences, consistently visible with all sexes of this breed
The light Brahma cockeral
A light Brahma pullet
Just a cool shot of the group when they were moved from their brooding box to the growing area, there was 50 the 73 that hatched out in this batch of youngsters
Just some observations from a gal that spends too much time observing chicks, smiling.