Confirmation of breed and sex for my little pets

Hi,

After our two rescue ISA Browns had their life ended early by someone we decided to get some little chicks and raise them by hand, with the aim to have 4 very friendly and docile chickens.

The chicks we picked up are:

Lavender Bantam Cochin (Pecking Chicken) 6 weeks old
French Cuckoo Marans - 8 weeks old
Rhode Island Red - 8 weeks old
White Campbell Duck (Yes, I know, not strictly a chicken ) - 8 Weeks old

I have seen so many theads and posts and pics and so on regarding the sex of chickens...and it's left me scratching my head. There are many characteristics that define a roo over a hen, but in a lot of cases these characteristics can be shown by both sex's...Spurs and Wattles for example.

Here's what I know:

The Cochin is the softest friendliest bird I have ever met. Very affectionate.

Very rarely the RIR, Cochin and Marans will have a mad 3-5 seconds and jump around, not on each other, more around each other, similar to lambs playing. This happens maybe once a day if that when I let them out and they fly a little to stretch their wings...at all other times there is zero agression between any of them...ever.

They all fall asleep with their necks crossing each others. They sit in your lap and stretch their necks as far as they can and rest them on each other...Duck tries not to get invloved in this.

The last 3 inches of the marans wings are solid black. No barring.

The RIR and Marans are best friends. Always scratting, drinking, sleeping together.
The duck and Cochin are best friends and both go mad if you take the other away.
They all tend to stay as a group of 4 mostly and follow each other around quite happily.

The duck has middle tail feather that is starting to curl. I know male ducks have this, but also females can do this too if their are no male ducks around...or so people have said. The duck makes a range of noises including peeps, gunts, quacks, VERY loud quacks, widdley-wees, and a ear shattering squeel/quack/peep when you take the Cochin away from her...the list goes on. She's a living walking noise synthesizer...Male ducks only go 'peep' from what I can gather.

The duck is clearly alpha is this group...the chicks get put in their place if they try and step on her or wake her up. Quite funny really. Apart from that the other 3 have equal pecking order.

They are all affectionate and all come to you and jump in your lap to be stroked and to catch 40 winks. The Cochin and Marans are the most affectionate.

The questions are...are these the make of chicken that I was told they are...I think they are, but just to confirm. Also, what would your guesses at sex be...I know it's a tough one...but also could you explain why you say Hen/Roo...ie, Roo because it's wearing a hat etc.

Here are the pics. The flash on my camera was playing up so the photos are a little brighter than they appear. I know this can affect the sexing of the Marans as males are lighter.

Bantam Cochin:



RIR:


Cuckoo Marans:



Campbell Duck:



I hope I have 4 females. Fingers crossed....if I am to be brutally honest I have a feeling te Marans may be a roo

CHeers,

Woka

PS If my girlfriend saw the photos here of the critters on the sofa I'd be a dead man. They are living poo producing machines...which don't go well with new sofas.

The marans definitely looks like a roo. I couldn't give a good guess on the cochin since I have never had that breed. The RIR looks like a pullet.

Thanks for the replies.

Quote:
Yikes, what does that mean?

Someone came into our back garden at night, took them from their coup and killed them...most likely drunk people garden hopping who found tomorrows dinner

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What makes you say Roo? Is it the comb? The heckle and tail feathers do seem to be rounded rather than pointy...which would point towards a hen. This is so confusing

Just checked the photos again and saw the Marans wings look almost white. darn that flash. Those feathers are almost completely black in real life, and not white like in the photo. Bad bad camera, bad bad flash.
The 'dip' in the Marans back, just above the ings, is due to 6-8 missing feathers from where they were 'hen pecked' before we got it.
It has very light pink/white legs with grey/dark camouflage type markings.

Cheers,

Woka

Perhaps a photo taken in natural light would change my mind but the white bars look to be generally wider than the black ones. Marans and BRs that are more white than black are generally males. I could certainly be wrong though.

I'll try and get one tomorrow when it's sunny.

I've seen Cuckoo Marans photos where the hens have barring, wattles and comb like mine and the roo is almost white with black tips on the feathers...but on the other hand I have seen photos where the hen is almost black, and the roo looks like a hen from the previous pics. These photos were ppl saying here's my 3 hens with the roo etc.
Not sure how a breed can be soooo different...

Thanks,

Woka

Your Cochin looks like a little pullet. I can't be 100% sure, but the comb is usually bigger on the roos at this age.

I'd say the Marans is definitely a Roo. The barring on the Roo's is distinct, and the pullets look "smutty" and are a darker color. Roo's look a little blue-ish, hens look blackish. I could be wrong, the light can mess up a pic. CC Marans roos grow very fast.
HenZ

Got some more photos as it's sunny today:

Duck stealing Marans food:

Marans wanting to eat my camera:


From these pics you can see the very dark wings. Looking closer as the feathers the barring is about 50/50 black/white on all the feathers...but more black on the wings.
The reason I picked the marans from the farm was because it looked like a Marans someone I know owns, plus some photos on the web.

This is a 1 - 1.5 year old Marans...this isn't my chicken:

So is this a roo or a hen?...they were told it was a hen, and thus I thought it was a hen...and the other 4 hens they have, ISA Browns and Dutch Batams i think, beat the living daylights out of it. It's right right right at the bottom of the pecking order...I feel VERY sorry for it, bullied nastily 24/7. Since they got this 1 yr old Marans it's never laid an egg...but that could be that everytime it sits down 4 nasty chickens lay into it. It's not a happy chicken, and I think that may be why it's not laid...unless it is a very gutless roo.

Is it common for hens to pick on roos with that level of violence?

Cheers,

Woka

Quote:
That's what I wanted to hear...!