Help sexing Dutch Banties

[BobbieJo81]

I know that the one in the bottom pic is a hen, its the one in the top 2 pics that has me curious.."Its" comb is larger than my hen and smaller than the one that I know is a roo..this one also has a small wattle? as to where my hen has none and my roo has a much larger one.. I have read that some hens do have larger combs, I am also starting to wonder if they are true dutch banties.. based on the fact that they do not have white earlobes.. they are petite , are way more outgoing and love people way more than my Silkies do..these guys throw a fit for me right around roosting time and think that I should squat down and let them roost on my back or shoulders.. they all had the traditional white feathering of the dutch blacks, and the roo still has 1 white tip on his wings but its getting smaller and smaller, the other 2 are completely black already..they are about 10-12 weeks..any advice would be greatly appreciated.. I do know they are purebred.. saw all of the breeding stock myself, breeder is very adamant about keeping breeds separate and has several wonderful rare breeds..didnt pay attention to see if the adult birds had white ear lobes, are they prominent at this age on dutch?

 

[CochinBrahmaLover]

Rooster, unless 'she' plans on laying soon. Hens rarely have combs larger then roosters of the same breed (Ie a leghorn will have a bigger comb then an austrolorp, but a leghorn roo will still have a larger comb then the hen... It's a testosterone thing), and this isn't 'true' for Dutches, it's not really true in any breed, just a 'once in a lifetime' thing (not that rare but just a 'oh cool don't see many of those!' Thing I guess... Lol!)
He's pretty

 

[Pathfinders]

Ok, to help clear this up, those are not purebred Dutch, and they have red earlobes, not black.

The black that you are seeing is the feather covering over the ear, not the lobe. The small red part below the ear is the ear lobe.

If it's red, they are not pure Dutch, and are likely from a hatchery, or perhaps they are Old English Game bantams. But Dutch they are not.

Here's what a good Black Dutch bird looks like (and be aware, very few people have good blacks, when Ralph Sheriff died several years ago, he left behind some good ones, but I don't know where they went and they may have been lost.) Right now the only one I know of who has good Blacks is Johnny Sprouse.

See the Dutch Bantam Society website for photos of what real Dutch look like (note especially the tails on these birds, as compared to the OEG crosses the hatcheries sell):

http://www.dutchbantamsociety.org/Collection_of_Photos.php

 

[BantamLover21]

Yes, as Pathfinders mentioned, yours do not look like purebred Dutch Bantams. I raise and breed Dutch Bantams, and, while it is true that the white earlobe takes a while to fully come in, it is never red like yours are. Also, the first two birds are roosters, with the last one (as you know) being hens. Less dominant roosters tend to grow their combs and wattles in slower than the dominant ones, which might explain why one of your males is more "rooster looking" than the other.

 

[BobbieJo81]

Yes, he is def a roo, he has started 'practice crowing' .. The other roo is the one that I think I am going to have to put down (Pathfinders, this is him before the swelling) I only have these 2 birds left out of whatever breed they are... I guess that is life on a farm..Thank you guys for the help.. I kept waiting on signs of white lobes to appear and with them being 10-11 weeks I figured I should see something by now.. Whatever they are, they are all identical in all of the birds he has, gorgeous as adults, super friendly hens...my roos are friendly but his adults werent so much..I will try for some babies out of them next spring.. for now I am going to call them WV Blacks..lol