white leghorn gender?

They are the same colors but a male would have much larger waddles and combs on his head and bigger saddle feathers. It might not be easy to know until they reach maturity.
 
My mother saw my Leghorn hens and tried to tell me they were roosters because of the size of the combs and waddles being so large, I pointed to the nesting boxes and showed her that all the chickens in the nesting boxes had large combs and waddles. I think she was only familiar with white rocks when she saw chickens as a kid. I have never seen a Leghorn rooster to know the difference but I imagine the tail might give it away.
 
Roosters have even bigger combs and wattles than the hens (which is a feat) and of course have male feathering, long flowing tail, pointed hackles and saddles. Hens have smaller combs that tend to 'flop'. The combs of the roosters will generally not flop, but it happens occasionally. Hens also lack the pretty tail feathers of the rooster. Here's a picture I found off of google.
http://chickenbreedslist.com/images/leghorn.jpg

Roosters will also get very red, very large combs very quickly, while a hen's comb generally stays small and pale until about 5 months or around when they start to lay.
Pullet, off of google: http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-aPHn29B_2y0/UcPT4xrXjaI/AAAAAAAAmlQ/3L148U-pfrk/s400/130.JPG
Cockerel, about the same age and also from google: http://api.ning.com/files/57eloaC8PTjNc1*Ee1rGAvXr2bTpczntUdja2Tc76JdTaJSoOq3hSh72fzw*-yelmkYJ23f5V-6fVSll*do2NNtAU8jGTXpI/barniesandoooobyphotos016.jpg?width=737&height=552

Hope this helps!
welcome-byc.gif
 
We recently got a group of chicks. They are about ten weeks now. Two of them have started crowing. We were very surprised so we consulted our favourite chick resource (backyardchickens.com) and learned that sometimes hens crow. We are still holding out hope that at least one of them might be a hen, but as they engage each other in the rooster "dance", we are losing hope fast. This is a pic of our leghorn who has been crowing. Any confirmation on roo status?


 
Only older dominant hens crow. Pullets do not. At ten weeks old, with those big red combs, they are cockerels. Pullets don't start to turn red in the comb until they are almost ready to lay eggs. Even if a pullet where to start laying very early at 14 weeks, the comb would only now just start pinking up. Male hackle and saddle feathers are usually visible after 12 weeks old. By 16 weeks, there is no mistaking a cockerel for a hen. The feathering will be completely different at that point.
 

New posts New threads Active threads

Back
Top Bottom