New here, HI!

Hello! I am new to this forum as well as new to chicken-keeping. So far we are loving it, we built our own beautiful coop and quickly obtained 6 chickens. I wanted one rooster, and I definitely have him... Sugar Daddy is his name and he's already crowing for us. (I love that sound!) 2 other ones that I thought were little girls (because that's what I was told) have me baffled. One, Mrs. Olsen, is mostly black with reddish/brown and iridescent feathers here and there. The other, Mazie, is a Barred Rock. I'm not sure of their exact ages, but I'm guessing 4 months at this point. If any of you can take a look at these pictures, and tell me what you think on their sex, I would be so grateful. I cannot have more than 1 rooster with such a small flock! Thanks, I really hope to figure this out with some help from this group.




Mrs. Olsen, unsure on breed. Comb is small, but bright red.



Mazie, Barred Rock. I know Mazie's coloring is lighter than I see on pics of barred rock hens, however there are none of the stringy, skinny tail feathers and saddle feathers; unless these come later? The comb is single, and not very bright red.

Welcome to BYC! Please make yourself at home and we are here to help.

Good luck with your flock and glad you joined!

You should check out our gender and breed section.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/f/15/what-breed-or-gender-is-this

Your barred rock is 100% male. Your other one is a golden laced wyandotte rooster.

Hello there and welcome to BYC!

You have a gorgeous flock! Definitely follow the link that Mountain Peeps has provided if you are unsure about any of these birds.

Very pretty! Great to have you aboard and welcome to our flock!

Thank you so much for your responses... I was really crossing my fingers for you to tell me that they were not roosters... I've gotten very very VERY attached to them, but won't be able to have 3 hens and 3 roosters, my girls would hate me. They are such sweet boys, too. I'm quite sad, but there's no choice but to exchange for hens (which the folks that gave them to us said would be no problem to do, once we knew for sure what they were). Sorry I didn't post my pics and questions in the right place, but I really do appreciate your kindness and all of your help. Blessings to you all!

Hello and Welcome To BYC! Good luck with your flock, very nice that your breeder lets you exchange your roos for pullets. There is a nice article in the Learning Center on adding birds to your existing flock also https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/adding-to-your-flock

Welcome to BYC! Glad you decided to join our flock. Sorry about your having 3 roosters. They may be good boys now, but as they mature, having that many roosters would almost certainly create problems for your flock. I've replied to a number of members' posts this week who are having problems with roosters, and in most cases the problem has been too many roosters to hens. The recommended ratio of roosters to hens is 1 rooster for every 10 hens. Any more roosters than that can quickly lead to aggression, fights, feather plucking, and over-bred and battered hens. When you really get down to it, the only reason you really need a rooster is to fertilize eggs for hatching. I currently have 25 hens, no roosters, and I get loads of eggs without feeding any non-egg laying mouths, without the aggression, fights, crowing in the middle of the night, and over-bred and battered hens that frequently goes along with having roosters (especially too many of them). You can't keep an aggressive rooster as you don't want to risk him seriously injuring anyone (putting out an eye, etc.), and you certainly don't want him breeding that aggression into the rest of your flock. Your flock will definitely be much better off when you trade those extra roosters in for some more hens. Good luck with your flock.

Welcome from the Ocean State!

Sorry about the roosters but, they are beautiful birds. I would think someone would grab them up.

Glad you joined us!