This is Josephine.
Josephine is a 16-week-old Black Australorp that we always thought was a pullet, but now we don't know WHAT she is. Very early, she asserted herself as Head Chicken over our other five girls and began developing a large comb and wattles. She also has striking bright green iridescence on her very roosterly tail feathers.
The problem is that while she doesn't seem 100% ladylike, she also doesn't show any signs that definitively point towards roosterhood. She has absolutely no spurs developing, and my husband has read in some places that by this age they should be very visible. Then again, I've heard that they may start developing later.
She also doesn't seem to be learning to crow at all, although we've heard that that may be something that comes later, too. BUT there were a few afternoons where she would suddenly stand up, flap her wings around and yell HAAAW! That was a couple weeks ago and not a peep from her since. Her vent also looks feminine, although as you can tell, we are new to this.
I don't know how Black Australorps are sexed as chicks, but here she is as a baby:
And here she is at four weeks old:
Please, chicken experts, help us! We'd really like to know what we're dealing with here because we don't particularly want a rooster. I'm so confused because she doesn't look that different from pictures of mature BA hens I've seen, but then I see pictures of pullets her same age, like in this thread, and don't know what to think.
At least her name is easily changed to Joseph
Josephine is a 16-week-old Black Australorp that we always thought was a pullet, but now we don't know WHAT she is. Very early, she asserted herself as Head Chicken over our other five girls and began developing a large comb and wattles. She also has striking bright green iridescence on her very roosterly tail feathers.
The problem is that while she doesn't seem 100% ladylike, she also doesn't show any signs that definitively point towards roosterhood. She has absolutely no spurs developing, and my husband has read in some places that by this age they should be very visible. Then again, I've heard that they may start developing later.
She also doesn't seem to be learning to crow at all, although we've heard that that may be something that comes later, too. BUT there were a few afternoons where she would suddenly stand up, flap her wings around and yell HAAAW! That was a couple weeks ago and not a peep from her since. Her vent also looks feminine, although as you can tell, we are new to this.
I don't know how Black Australorps are sexed as chicks, but here she is as a baby:
And here she is at four weeks old:
Please, chicken experts, help us! We'd really like to know what we're dealing with here because we don't particularly want a rooster. I'm so confused because she doesn't look that different from pictures of mature BA hens I've seen, but then I see pictures of pullets her same age, like in this thread, and don't know what to think.
At least her name is easily changed to Joseph
