Oh no! My pullet's a Rooster.

On June 19th I helped out a neighbor by taking the two pullets she had bought, but was unable to keep. They are beautiful GL Wyandottes. At that time she said they were two weeks old. Now here it is two weeks later and I have a sneaking suspicion that one of the pullets is a roo.

I bought my first flock of 1 roo and 4 pullets on May 13th. I'm real new to this and have had tons of help from all of you on DG.
I have a 6' X4' coop and let them free range during the day. I had trouble getting them integrated, but they are doing well now. It just so happens that the one "Roaster the Rooster" was head pecking is the one that I believe is a rooster.

First, what do you think based on the picture?

Second, can I keep them all in the same coop?

Third, once the boys start noticing the girls, should I expect more fighting over who gets the girls?

Once again, thank you in advance for all the advice.

Here's a better picture of "Sylvester aka Sylvia"

Here's another picture of Sylvester aka Sylvia and his partner Goldie.

Could be a roo. When the combs get noticeably larger than the others there is a good chance you have a roo. And, if it is turning redder than I'd say there is even a better chance. Based on the pictures I would lean to roo because the comb is quite a bit bigger than the other one in the picture. Since it was pecking heads on the others that is another indicator that it could be roo. Even at a young age some roos will start the head pecking. We have two Blue Cochin roos that are getting close to 3 months old. They started crowing very early, got bigger combs early and pecked heads.

Looks like a roo to me..
One male will be dominant.. the other will loose out. Might be fighting, might not.. but that is not near enough hens for 2 roos. You might consider keeping the pair separate?
When they start to get hormones, yes, that will be hard on both the 2 roos and the ladies..

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news... but better to know now and be ready for it. :)

I'm going along with the girl and saying looks like a roo.
We have 2 roosters in one pen, and like the ZZ said, there will probably be fighting.
We have 2 roosters in with 7 hens, but one is Footless, and Buddy sees him as pretty much harmless. He only goes after him at times when Buddy thinks the girls should have all the food.

ZZ is usually right about these things, but I had a Barred Rock pullet that grew a big floppy red comb and waddles when her sisters had none. She also was mean to the other pullets but friendly to me - and she turned out to be a she, so there may be hope!

It's funny how the hens can be mean to each other too. We had to move a hen because she was being picked on when she was molting, by one of our other girls. We put her in the pen with the younger hens. She seems to get along fine with them.

I would personally wait on this I have had young hens with large combs that looked like a roo and roo's who's combs just weren't developed yet.
As far as fighting been my experience hens wanting to be top hen can be meaner than the roo's so pecking doesn't determine sex.

I would give it a little more time {:~)

Msjuris, I see no problem. The solution is simple, if Sylvia is Sylvester. You need more hens! LOTS more hens...

Running off cackling to hide under the coop.

(evil grin)

Oh catmad you're so naughty. Though I'm trying to convince my husband that is what we should do.

I've read other posts and get the impression that ZZ's is usually right about these things. We're not set up for a big flock, so I'll keep hoping Sylvia is just developing a comb faster than her sister. I guess I'll know for sure in a couple more weeks.

Thanks to all for your help, advice and humor.

Your Welcome {:~)

Silence is golden: Haystack


Catmad!!! Can you see me??? Over here No, No, over here, I was thinking the same thing! So thought there would be room for two under here. LOL

LOL Thank you Msjuris, Kassy and you too Porkpal!! I appreciate the compliment.. or vote of confidence..

Catmad.. I think you have the best solution of all.. More hens.. and I'm sure those two roos will back you on that. LOL

Really though Msjuris, do you have facilities to house a pair? A pair of GLWs would be nice...

We have a small coop built to accomodate a max of 8. But we have plenty of free range acres.
My DH has come to terms with my love of chickens and is now looking into buying a 10' X12' shed for me to convert into a coop so I can keep the birds I already have and add the number of hens necessary to keep two roosters happy, if Sylvester is actually a boy. We were planning on adding more chicks next spring, I guess we'll just expand a little sooner than planned.

Catmad and Haystack may be hiding under a coop laughing but I'm dancing around the coop like a nut all giddy with excitement at the thought of more hens. Already decided on Wyandottes and Orpingtons.

Excellent Choice! {:~)

Sigh. I went out this am to see how the banties I snuck into the coop last night were doing. I guess I woke everyone up. To my shock and complete horror, one of my EE "hens" decided to crow. I suspect one of his "sisters" is not far behind.

Oh well. Not so many blue eggs, I guess. I'll simply try to be happy that now I can grow my own.....

sigh

Haystack, you're always welcome under the coop, as are any other enablers. Now that I have EE roosters, I need more EE hens, don't I?? Huh? Or, perhaps they're just here to enable me...in adding the "blue gene" to my other breeds. At least they're some of the "prettier" hens:)

This message was edited Jul 3, 2009 8:11 AM

I am so sorry... but YIPEE now you get more! I love blue eggers! I don't think I've ever seen your EEs catmad.
Are the bantams EEs?
Be very careful giving enablers the go ahead.......

How many acres do you have again??? LOL

So, catmad, does this mean by next spring we'll all be reading about you hatching out your own EE eggs?

What is an EE?

I once had a barred rock pullet that turned out to be a rooster. He and my Araucana rooster, Bucky, had a crowing contest every morning. Drove my neighbor crazy.

Hi AZ,
And EE is an Easter Egg chicken.
The Easter Egg Chicken is not an actual breed; the term refers to any bird that lays colored eggs. The vast majority of birds sold as "Araucanas" or "Ameraucanas" are actually neither. Instead, they are mixed breeds with no APA (American Poultry Association) Standard that lay colored eggs, ranging from bluish and greenish to pinkish-brown, and sometimes even tan, gray or white.

I bought them as "Ameracaunas", but have my doubts that they're really of the breed. They're very pretty, and I'm quite fond of them, but I don't even know what color eggs they will lay, if ANY are really hens. It would be nice to have blue eggs, but, we'll see.

ZZ, no, the banties are Cochins, Silkies and White Faced Spanish. Last night was their first full night in the coop, and I was amazed. The Barred (?) Cochin roo (his name is Toaster) was on the top perch. That's the very full one, usually 22 chickens. Last night it was 23 :). Good thing he's mostly feathers. You could barely see him. I was so worried the Silkies would have trouble adjusting, but one was on the second tier, and another the next one down. They were out and about yesterday, and seemed un-bothered by anyone. The Cochins stayed mostly in their carrier, but were out last night and slept in a huddle in the corner. I'll leave the "safe place" one more day, and then they should be fine. 21.6 acres.

msjuris, next spring? Do I reallllly have to wait that long?? I was figuring on Thanksgiving chicks....No, that would be too soon. I have enough for now. I do . Really. And the fact that almost every hen I have is possibly of the broody persuasion should have no bearing on this. I will diligently search out any clutches that any hen should attempt to hatch. I will. Really....

Wow thanks Kassy. I didn't know that about the Easter Egger's. I learn something new everytime I come online to this forum.

Your welcome msjuris :)

Catmad, ours were listed as auracana-easter egg chickens when we bought them. Our are EE's and most of them lay blue eggs. One lays green, and one of our young ones, that we hatched, lays what looks like a olive green at time. Yet at times it looks more mud green We had one that layed a pinkish-brown egg too.
I did a bunch of research recently. This site will probably best discribe the differences in them.

http://www.araucanasonline.com/page5.html

When I ordered mine they said they were auracanas as soon as they stated growing tails I know they were not,so then I thought they were ameracaunas so I posted pictures here and someone said I was the proud owner of EE`s and like I said then as long as they are good egg layers I don`t care what they are.

Same here green, love our girls and guy :)
This is one of our young ones that we hatched last year.

Love that beard

Not all of ours do have the beard though or the tufts, this is Ruby, The older one that we have. She didn't want to have her picture taken.

Nice Birds everyone :~)

This is Buddy, the father of the younger ones :)

Thank you Harmony :)

And this is our little white girl.....comes running for use when we go out there. This one will let us pet her at times. She is the one who lays the strang green colored egg.

I was just going to post this same thread. :( I was supposed to have six girls. I think I'll be lucky to end up with three.
Of the three Buff Orpingtons, 2 have noticeable combs and what look to be the beginnings of wattles, the third has a smooth head. 1 of my Black Star's isn't getting any of the coppery breast/neck feathers. He's also a love bug and likes me to pet him.

My problem is that I'm in suburbia. I'm pushing it with chickens, roosters are a big no-no. Especially three.

Don't give up hope yet. I don't know about the Black Star, but my Buff Orpingtons have a wide variety of "head dresses" and all are now hens.

Good news!! :)

I don't think hatcheries are doing as good of a job at sexing the chicks as they use to.
First order we put in was for all pullets and we got 2 roosters.
Since they messed up our order, the next year they ordered 6 free of charge for us.
Should have been all pullets, but ended up with 3 roosters out of those 6.

Maybe the hatcheries should get some advise from ZZ's. I picked up more chicks so Sylvester (formerly Sylvia) had his own harem of hens, but loo I think they are not all pullets. I'll have to post better pics to get ZZ's opinion though. Here's a pic of three of the new Buff Orpingtons i just got.

That's partially where they messed up our order. We should have gotten 2 Buff Ormingtons, but got none. The brown ones that we did get have been very good egg layers. And they are very friendly, so next year we may oder some more of them..........then watch, they will give us the Buffs :-|

Kassy, the ag center I go to gets their chicks from Ideal Poultry. Next year I'm ordering online from them, hopefully the middle man is making the errors and not the hatchery. Though it seems like no matter where you go, you'll be lucky to get 90% accuracy.

I originally bought 4 pullets and a roo, all supposedly Red Sex Links. Two of the pullets were actually Buff Orpingtons. My neighbor bought 2 gold laced wyandotte pullets (which I then adopted) one turned out to be a roo.

I bought 6 more BO pullets in the hopes of giving each roo a small harem. I'm beginning to think at least 2 of the 6 are roos, maybe 3. I guess I'll have to wait and see and in the meantime prepare myself for the task of "processing" my first.

Its super easy to spot the roo and hen in single comb breeds there is no expert way to do it.

Just look at the comb most roos will already have a tiny little bumpy comb and the hens will have nothing.
Alot of breeds are impossible to tell like the rose and pea combs only time will tell you on those.
Of course no sexing method is 100% even the hatcheries make mistakes time and patience is your best bet when it comes to knowing the sex's.

OH man msjuris, I think the brown girls that we got might be red sexlinks.
We have been lucky enough to find homes for any of our extra rooster. Other then the ones we lost unexpectedly.
There once was a 100% accuracy rate, or very close to it in one breed anyway. And I'll tell you about that this coming weekend, after I get to my boyfriends house and get the pictures I have there.