GLW 13 weeks...rooster?

EggSighted4Life said:

Gingers' tail feathers look a little too loose for me to wanna say pullet for sure even though the lacing doesn't look so barred. That is also A LOT of color for a girl. :/

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Noooooo, not Ginger too!!! So pullets shouldn't have much color in their feathers, or comb & wattles, or all 3?

Roo is crowing, have not heard a peep out of either of the other two. Sugar does peck at the others, but is clearly not top of the pecking order, a close second though. Ironically, my dad was over visiting the other day and made a comment about Sugar being the top of the pecking order based on his observations while checking in the chickens while we were out of town several times over the past month. I said no way, and he just shrugged his shoulders with a, "ok, whatever you say, but I think she's ruling the roost" kind of look. I still thought nothing of it until several of you mentioned the possibility that Sugar is a boy! But Ginger, has to be a girl, surely!?! She's very reserved, submissive and happy to let the other two check out visitors and potential threats.

So, if two or more are indeed boys, how do we go about adding to our flock to bring in some girls? Introduce chicks? Full grown hens? How do we add more and keep the peace?

EggSighted4Life said:

Gingers' tail feathers look a little too loose for me to wanna say pullet for sure even though the lacing doesn't look so barred. That is also A LOT of color for a girl. :/

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One more question for you...is barring that darker band of feathers around their lower neck/upper shoulder area? Meaning the lacing pattern breaks up in that area vs consistent lacing pattern from head to tail?

It's a tough place to be.... so many decisions.

kwphotomom said:

One more question for you...is barring that darker band of feathers around their lower neck/upper shoulder area? Meaning the lacing pattern breaks up in that area vs consistent lacing pattern from head to tail?

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Specifically at the top of the wings... look at sugars' wings. It's the same color only solid instead of laced, or kind of blurred if you will.

Maybe Ginger is like red laced or something instead of gold laced??

If you bring in older birds you have to worry about parasites and disease. Bringing in younger birds you still have to brood and integrate, that's probably how I would go.

1 cockerel needs about 10 hens to not over mate them. 2 boys to 1 girl, they could mate her to death. Before boys learn their manners they chase, pull feathers, hold her down and if more than 1 will take turn mating her while sh'e down. They may peck at her comb while mating... 2 of my girls have chunks missing. You will know when this starts because your girl will be screaming at first when she isn't sure what's happening. And she won't have the option to say no. A roo that has learned his manners is a whole different creature. This being your first rodeo.. I highly recommend you do not keep a boy. They start crowing at 3:30 am and through out the day, not just at sunrise. Also, if you have any kids or dogs, they sometimes become the cockerels first target.

Not trying to scare you. Roosters can be good! But they aren't needed to have a happy flock. And if you aren't hatching chicks with intent to eat extra cockerels... just not sure it's worth the extra hassle.

Again, broken lacing on the wings only. Other areas like the neck is just the norm.

EggSighted4Life said:

It's a tough place to be.... so many decisions. 
Specifically at the top of the wings... look at sugars' wings. It's the same color only solid instead of laced, or kind of blurred if you will.

Maybe Ginger is like red laced or something instead of gold laced??

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It's possible Ginger is something else! It's hard to see in the pictures, but in the sunlight she looks dark amber color with bluish-lavenderish tail feathers. And the lacing on her body is sort of turning more of the lavender too (the black tips that is). Maybe she is a BLRW???

I never spoke directly to the breeder. A friend's father in law knows the breeeder, and he made all of the arrangements when we purchased the chicks. I never spoke with anyone other than my friend, who was getting 2nd hand info all along. She said one was SLW, one was GLW, and the other was "black laced Wyandotte". I am not even sure there is such a thing as black laced, lol! So I am positive there was some sort of miscommunication somewhere along the way. We got them as day old chicks who were guessed to be female. I'm pretty sure the Breeder would swap roosters out for hens if we wanted to, he did that for my friends FIL when one of his 3 turned out to be a rooster. So we could do that, but I honestly don't mind having one rooster to help protect our birds. We live on 16 acres and will let these chickens free range when they are a little bigger. And we are not opposed to growing the flock either, so will probably just add more birds rather than return or swap the Roos.

EggSighted4Life said:

If you bring in older birds you have to worry about parasites and disease. Bringing in younger birds you still have to brood and integrate, that's probably how I would go.

1 cockerel needs about 10 hens to not over mate them. 2 boys to 1 girl, they could mate her to death. Before boys learn their manners they chase, pull feathers, hold her down and if more than 1 will take turn mating her while sh'e down. They may peck at her comb while mating... 2 of my girls have chunks missing. You will know when this starts because your girl will be screaming at first when she isn't sure what's happening. And she won't have the option to say no. A roo that has learned his manners is a whole different creature. This being your first rodeo.. I highly recommend you do not keep a boy. They start crowing at 3:30 am and through out the day, not just at sunrise. Also, if you have any kids or dogs, they sometimes become the cockerels first target.

Not trying to scare you. Roosters can be good! But they aren't needed to have a happy flock. And if you aren't hatching chicks with intent to eat extra cockerels... just not sure it's worth the extra hassle.

Again, broken lacing on the wings only. Other areas like the neck is just the norm.

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Oh my goodness, you are right, big decisions to be made now that I have read this info you posted. We do have kids, 13, 10 and 7. We also have 3 dogs, all Shih Tzu ranging, 2 are around 9 pounds and the other is around 15 pounds. Maybe we should stick with an all girl flock! Sounds like our Roo's temperament could change drastically once he hits full maturity, he's pretty gentle now, but I wouldn't stand for a mean rooster!

kwphotomom said:

Oh my goodness, you are right, big decisions to be made now that I have read this info you posted. We do have kids, 13, 10 and 7. We also have 3 dogs, all Shih Tzu ranging, 2 are around 9 pounds and the other is around 15 pounds. Maybe we should stick with an all girl flock! Sounds like our Roo's temperament could change drastically once he hits full maturity, he's pretty gentle now, but I wouldn't stand for a mean rooster!

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Your kids are pretty good in age.

Hanging around is no problem with our boys. It's when we are playing frisbee and such. So I just lock the boys up during that time.

Roos temperament does change drastically as certain hormonal peaks come into play. Teens are the worst as you can imagine, then they settle down. Might be hard to know how well behaved they can be for a while. There ARE good roos a plenty though, so it's possible you might get one! The flock is such a dynamic thing, sometime you just have to roll with it as it comes.

Some roosters will die protecting their flock. Others will duck and run like the chickens they are. In my experience, the flock is NO better protected with a roo than not. The top hen will sound the alarm just as well. Also boys always reach sexual maturity before the girls. Having older girls when you introduce young males does help to keep them in check.

I heard someone else mention Black laced Wyandotte before. Not knowing if it's true or not, I will say that one of my girls does appear to have much thicker, black lace outlines around her gold than my other. It's great that they look different.

Breeder chicks are definitely hard to sex as day old's excluding auto sexing breeds. Good to hear you might have options.

Oh yes, your flock WILL grow... beware of chicken math! (1+1= 3) (3+2=10) (10-3=48)

Hi

I'm no expert on Wyandottes but 2 out of the three (obviously Roo and Sugar) are almost certainly male. I have suspicions that Ginger may also be a late developing male too. Just something about the feathering is making me suspicious despite the much smaller comb development.

In some respects, all 3 being male, might be the best situation for you. If you have 2 males and 1 female, you are going to need to pen the lads up in a bachelor pad or risk her being injured by them and her life a total misery (as Eggsighted4Life has suggested, it could even prove fatal) The lads may also fight over her.
You have a few weeks before those male hormones kick in although it will happen sooner than later with Spring in the air. Pullets usually mature slower than males, so the cockerels will be rampant before she is ready to be mated, but that probably won't stop them. I hate killing anything, but I find it much easier to cull and eat cockerels once they start terrorising my girls. It is just not nice.

Your problem is that if Ginger is female, she will be lonely being kept on her own and keeping her within sight of the lads' bachelor pad, may cause them to fight. If you get chicks to grow on, she will be on her own for a long time before they are ready to be integrated with her. If you get adult birds there is a risk of disease coming with them although at least you are guaranteed pullets/hens by buying older birds. It is also wise to quarantine new birds for 4 weeks.... I didn't realise how important that is when I started and I ended up with a viral disease which my flock will probably never be free of and causes a lot of heartache.

So, perhaps all 3 being males and then starting with some new sexed chicks might be the best situation to be in.

I would post more photos in a week or two. Side shots are particularly useful at this age as we are looking specifically for saddle feathers which grow from the males backs and drape either side of the tail and are thin and pointy. It's difficult to see that area on the recent photo of Sugar due to the camera angle.

For information, lower ranking/developing males will sometimes not crow in the presence of a dominant male, so the fact that Sugar and Ginger don't crow, doesn't mean anything.

Good luck in dealing with a rather awkward situation

Regards

Barbara

Yep, two cocks and a hen!