We have sexed all of our two month old chickens except for this one. He/She clucks like our rooster does..but apears to look more like a hen of this breed. Does anyone know what this is? Or if there is a good way to sex this breed of chicken?
Is it a boy or a girl?
The buff one in the front looks like my young buff orpington roos do...
Julie
That is no good! :( I am really backwards now. I sent the picture to several breeding farms. Two of them wrote back saying they thought it was a pullet...but one of them also guessed (I dont know why) that my cat in the background was a boy...and that is actually Daisy...my farm cat. So...I dont know!
Do you have any pictures of your Orpingtons?
I'm at work now so I can't do a pic...
look here at the orpingtons, my pullets have much smaller combs than the young roos. Although I have a single blue orpington I can't sex yet...lol
http://www.feathersite.com/Poultry/CGK/Orps/BRKOrps.html
Julie
No problem! Working is overrated anyway. I want to be a full time chicken caretaker...do you think my social security would still acrue? Hahaha...hard to tell I guess. His comb is pretty much the same size as my RIR rooster...so maybe my question about the sex is just wishful thinking. We really dont have room for more then one roo. :)
Even our duck is a boy!
I find sometimes you can tell by looking at their feet. The roos' tend to be 'thicker' 'butchier' .
Interesting! I didnt think of that, but you are right. Marsala has really thick feet! This chicken I think is a hen...although she clucks more often, and louder than any of the rest, and has outgrown even my rooster (who is older)!
Put your thumb on your chickens vents (anuses) and feel the width of their pelvic bones. Compare to other cockerels and pullets. The pullets should have wider gaps than the cockerels because they will be laying eggs.
My orpingtons are 20 weeks old now and all pullets and none of them have a comb as big as your Orp. My roo on the other hand (brown leghorn) looked about like your RIR and Orp do comb wise at 2 months. The clencher was when one morning he stood up all straight, flapped his wings and croaked out a horse little cock-a-doooooo. It was the funniest thing I have ever seen!
Good Luck!
Laura
Hey...did it sound like this?
http://www.freewebs.com/ryanandmelissa/hencrowing.htm
Oh my, isn't that too cute! Yep, that's about what he sounded like. Now he sounds like dinner ;-) He is loud and starts at 5am which doesn't bother me so much but we live in town and so my neighbors might not be too keen on it!
Laura
I can empathize with your neighbors. I live out in the country and I don't have any roosters because my hens are just for egg production and pets. My neighbor decided to get some chickens after I had mine for a few months. Well, his rooster was a fighting game cock and was wild as all get out. One day he discovered all my big beautiful Black Australorps and Buff Orpington, and he decided he wanted to hang out with them instead of those skinny ugly game hens. I wouldn't have minded it so much except for the fact that everytime I went out back, he would cause a big commotion and get my hens (which I had gotten very tame before he showed up) all riled up. They just did what he did, and all he did was panic when I went back there. They got so stressed that most of them quit laying. I asked my neighbor to keep him away but he kept coming over. I tried to catch the little booger but he was to quick and he could fly quite well. He was really ticking me off! My wife thought it was real funny until he started his daily ritual of standing just outside our bedroom window every morning at 5:00 and crowing over and over and over again. She told me I had to do something about it so the next day that bird found out he couldn't fly faster than a .38 bullet. Now, everything is back to normal. My hens are laying at full capacity and my wife is sleeping a whole lot better.
LOL, well this rooster was suppose to be a hen! We never wanted a rooster! We are trying to decide what to do with him. Nobody wants him so we might have to have him as the guest of honor at our next Sunday dinner. He has started chasing my daughter so we need to do something quick.
Laura
Yes...my good rooster (who I loved) was one of the ones that perished last week. This one remaining is a mean guy! I dont know if he will stay around long. We may let him fertilize a few eggs so we can get some nice crossed laying hens...but then I want another RIR...much more calm! Dinner...why not? 'I feel like chicken tonight...like chicken tonight!'