hen or a roo? very sad : - ( - Page 2

I agree this is way too young to tell. Don't give up hope. I swore my RIR was a boy due to her large red comb at 7 weeks! She's laying beautiful eggs.

Yours are feathering out pretty nicely. So far I would guess all girls in that bunch. RIR's have bigger single combs, so they tend to grow faster on the females.

Good luck.

:D Barbie was thinking, "I could've had goldfish" !
 

Duh, I just remembered, we thought our sweet RIR hen was a roo until she laid an egg.  She's on right in my picture.  She had the biggest comb and wattles I've ever seen on a hen.  So, you never know. 

Edited by GardenGal - 5/6/12 at 9:04am

Look like hens to me. Roosters tend to develop feathers later than the others. They all look like they have some pretty thick featherage already.

my neighbor told me there is a lot of underground cock fighting going on in this county. I'm guessing that is where most of the 'rooster free to good home' chickens end up. 

I'm really worried my smallest banty may turn out to be male, if so, 

I agree with Rhosie above, I'll take care of it myself. 

'

If it is a banty, you may be in luck.. Unless you town ordinace doesnt allow roosters, bantam roosters are usually VERY nice and sweet.... at least in my experience..... PLUS, their isnt exactly any meat on banties... Usually I try to convince a neighbor/ friend to start raising chickens and will give them one or two hens and the rooster as a start up gift IF i have to get rid of a rooster that isnt aggresive...

I had a BR chick that got a comb VERY early.  I thought for sure she was a roo.  But I waited and her comb grew but did not turn red until all the other girls.  At 20 weeks she started laying eggs.  But her comb was huge at just 4 weeks.

 

So yes dont start to worry yet.  Wait and see!

Ugg!  I'm sorry!  I know how you feel.  We just got into the chicken thing a few months ago!  My chicks are now about 5 weeks old.  2 of which are production reds.  I am pretty sure one of them is a roo.  He struts around, his comb has more defined bumps and is much darker in color and his tail feathers haven't started coming in yet...  My suspicion is due to having two of the same breed that are having these differences, if I didn't have something to compare I probably wouldn't have even noticed until later.
That's only one and I was sad so I can imagine if you had 3 you were afraid were roo's. 

Sorry!  Keep us posted though.