Hen or Rooster - Buff Orpington

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Smellsey

Smellsey

In the Brooder
Mar 12, 2015
15
0
24
Frederick, MD
Hi Everyone!

I'm hoping the experts can help me out, as this is my first season caring for chickens. We purchased 8 chicks in April and have already re-homed one of our chickens, as we ended up with 2 roosters. Now I'm wondering if my Buff Orpington is a rooster too!

She/he makes a terrible noise in reply to our Brown Leghorn Rooster's crowing, she/he is much larger than my other chickens, and seems to be growing a much larger comb. I'm just not 100% sure she/he is a rooster yet. So I was hoping for some help. What do you think?



Thank you for your help!
 
How old is your Buff? By the comb, wattles and feathering I'm guessing it's a he. None of our 19 week old girls have tail feathers like your chicken does....but our roosters sure do.
 
We're nearing the 16 week mark with our chickens. My other two roosters showed themselves weeks ago and I was able to re-home our Rhode Island Red. About a week ago I was watching my Buff and realized "uh oh...she might be a rooster too!"
 
Smellsey said:
We're nearing the 16 week mark with our chickens. My other two roosters showed themselves weeks ago and I was able to re-home our Rhode Island Red. About a week ago I was watching my Buff and realized "uh oh...she might be a rooster too!"
Click to expand...
That makes it kinda tricky... It may be a late developing cockerel, and it might by an oddly feathered pullet. I think that fact that it makes "an odd sound" in reply to the other rooster is the kicker, though. If it sounds like a raspy "Ah-urrr" and it makes the "crowing motion" then I think it's a cockerel...
 
After talking with my husband, who works from home a lot, he said that Kevin (our Brown Leghorn Rooster) and Buff Baby (our Buff Orpington) basically go back and forth crowing all day. They seem to be getting a little more feisty with one another as well. We couldn't tell if this was breeding or competition, as we're so new to the whole thing. I really wonder about this whole "sexing" of chicks now that we've ended up with so many roos in the batch!
 
You really won't know until he crows as the old saying goes. My Alpha Buff was supposed to be a girl and had everyone fooled until he crowed. His coloring was paler like the hens, he wasn't aggressive with his behavior. All he had was this huge wattle and comb....early on. His tail came in like a hens though and he feathered out like a hen. Here is a pic of him at about 4 weeks:

The Buff Orpington standing behind him and to his right was sexed as a 1 day old cockerel and sure enough, he is. While his comb is larger, notice it isn't nearly as red as the Mystery Chick's is. He even surprised the breeder that hatched him.
 
He is crowing, but it's such a sad sounding crow. It's very underdeveloped compared to our Brown Leghorn. Could this be because he's a late developing roo? Or do some hens crow too?
 

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