I have a Lavendar Orpington Roo that hatched the end of May. I gave him to a woman who was looking for a rooster to protect her small flock of hens. He was the biggest roo of any breed of my spring chickens (appx 150 chickens). The woman actually just recently brought him back because he doesn't crow and doesn't mount the ladies. I reintroduced him to my flock and the smaller LO roo that hatched out with him is now mean to the bigger one. His feathers are all in and he's clearly a roo. I am bringing him from my farm to my city coop since I have a number of my favorite hens here and I thought if he does mount the ladies without crowing I can at least hatch out babies of my favorite ladies. So very odd that he doesn't crow though. I will post a pic tomorrow of him.
Mine are huge too! Gentle giants, really. But they do their job with the ladies!
While looking through some pics, I happened to find this one. Isn't he cute?!
View attachment 1201661
This was "Mr Nice Guy" who I was hoping to breed next spring. (before he died from an extreme heat wave in Sept.) Sadly, there are no male chicks looking this good in my current batch. It doesn't help that can only identify 1 definite male.
Adorable pic! Sorry you lost him. Any idea how old he was at that pic?
This one?
For 18 weeks, I'd guess female based on the body shape. Males tend to get "leggy" & their stance looks different. This one has wattles, but some of my females get pink wattles just like this. The males should have more red & much taller comb by 15 weeks. (Not to mention the lack of saddle feathers.)
My laced orp who hatched June 17th just started crowing. (Well technically he crowed just once 4 days ago.) He doesn't mount either, but he's definitely male. I think my other roo handles all the crowing & breeding, so the new guy (Mr Wonderful) is taking his own sweet time to grow up.
View attachment 1201666
Yep, 19 weeks today. I still feel he is a he, but it's never taken me this long to know for sure. But since the only other one that hatched with him died, he's been kind of a loner. Running with my bantam cochin boys. I do have a blue Marans hen that he hangs out with too. I've been watching to see if he will try to mate with her. But he is very shy.
pics from yesterday. All depends on the angle.