Crowing?

[lancetrace]

If a chicken is ten weeks and looks and sounds like it is trying to crow, is that a given that it is a boy? Black Australorp.

 

[smilot]

Sounds impossible but I had a polish cockrell start crowing at 3 weeks. It was scratchy and very high pitch but he did about 3 times before we had to get rid of him. I find that if you have another roo around the younger males will start to follow suit earlier than if they were the only roo. Learn by example for sure. Also younger females tend to follow the roo around the yard. Of course these are my own personal observations with my flock. I seem to be really good at hatching roo's for some strange reason.

 

[lancetrace]

Well he was suppose to be a she with the other five pullets I got from MyPet Chicken. So I am very upset but he is so beautiful. This is my first flock. I did get three more babies that I put out by his pen so maybe that got him started. Rats! I have two baby top hats that are unsexed so I don't know if I will be able to keep another roo.

 

[smilot]

I had more than one roo, but they had plenty of room in the yard and they were from two different hatches so the older of the two was the dominant and had "his" hens and the littler had hens that hatched at the same time as him. I never had any fighting between them it just got really noisy in my yard and I wanted some peace and quiet and nicer tail feather on my hens and over time he got more aggressive with my girls and they would run. Running them ragged I think is they the key phrase for that behavior. My second roo became evil after we got rid of the dominant roo, he doesn't even mount them he just rips out their feathers so we have him separated from the girls now. He'll be dinner soon enough it's too bad too he's a mix buff cochin ameraucana truly an exquisite looking bird.