😲Is this a Jersey Giant?!?!

[Ash85]

12 weeks old.
This is my loner bird (only have 1 like this) it's either hanging by itself or hanging with the hens.
Dark legs and its feet underneath are a very soft butter yellow. Has always been slower developing then the rest. Originally I thought it was a male australorp but I was told by a few it looks like a female Jersey giant?

Included photos of it when it was younger as well.

 

[SBFChickenGirl]

Jersey giants have yellow bottomed feet. Looks like a cockerel (I'm looking at comb development) but it's hard to tell from a front view like that.

 

[Ash85]

Here is another shot. Its feet are a soft yellow but not bright yellow? Would that mean it's something else?

 

[SBFChickenGirl]

Per roysfarm.com
"The legs of Australorp chicken are black, the bottoms being pinkish-white. But the legs of Jersey Giant chicken are black, and the bottoms of their feet is yellow."

I'd say you've got a Jersey Giant.

 

[Acre4Me]

Looks like a BJG. We have these, and the females that we've had tend to be more "introverted" - they are not low in the pecking order, but they tend to not hang with the rest of the flock as much as others. Yours could be male, but I'd wait a little longer to see. I'm unable to zoom in on your last pic to see saddle feathers. However, at 12+ weeks, saddle feathers will begin to become evident if male. Also, you may be able to see spur buds already on the legs, if male.

Here are our male and female BJG (from a long time breeder) at 4 months old. Note the comb/wattle difference, and the leg thickness difference between the two. However, I've seen pics on BYC of female BJG that seem to get comb and wattle development earlier than the one Female in my pic. We have some more BJG now, and they followed a similar pattern of large legs on male, slower comb/wattle development on female, but that could just be the strain we have that develop so differently. These were bred from an exhibition line, so their focus was on appearance.

 

[Ash85]

Looks like a BJG. We have these, and the females that we've had tend to be more "introverted" - they are not low in the pecking order, but they tend to not hang with the rest of the flock as much as others. Yours could be male, but I'd wait a little longer to see. I'm unable to zoom in on your last pic to see saddle feathers. However, at 12+ weeks, saddle feathers will begin to become evident if male. Also, you may be able to see spur buds already on the legs, if male.

Here are our male and female BJG (from a long time breeder) at 4 months old. Note the comb/wattle difference, and the leg thickness difference between the two. However, I've seen pics on BYC of female BJG that seem to get comb and wattle development earlier than the one Female in my pic. We have some more BJG now, and they followed a similar pattern of large legs on male, slower comb/wattle development on female, but that could just be the strain we have that develop so differently. These were bred from an exhibition line, so their focus was on appearance.
View attachment 2194145

Beautiful birds! Does both your male and female shine iridescent all over in the sun? My bird has a purple/greenish colour in the sun. I'll keep an eye out for saddle feathers as if right now the bird does really have much of a tail at all compared to my other but I'll watch for development. Fingers crossed it's a girl as I didn't have much luck this year with my choices.. 3 possibly 4 roosters out of 5 birds

 

[Ash85]

Its a hard bird to take pictures of lol it wants nothing to do with me most of the time lol

 

[Acre4Me]

Beautiful birds! Does both your male and female shine iridescent all over in the sun? My bird has a purple/greenish colour in the sun. I'll keep an eye out for saddle feathers as if right now the bird does really have much of a tail at all compared to my other but I'll watch for development. Fingers crossed it's a girl as I didn't have much luck this year with my choices.. 3 possibly 4 roosters out of 5 birds

Male shines more than female and has the sheen you are talking about. Given the slow growing tail and shining feathers, in addition to the comb and wattle growth, you may have a male.....but, wait for saddle feathers for confirmation of a male. In my experience, BJG are late to crow, and when they crow, they are easier to listen too - they have deeper crows, and they don't tend to crow a lot as compared to other breeds (Maran and Leghorn males have been the most "talkative" of the male breeds we've had...and they were sold bc they were just too opinionated too much of the time).

The downside is if you have a big BJG and regular to trim breeds (like a Leghorn is regular size, but trim), then it is a huge size difference for mating - can be successful, though. We just incubated and hatched some chicks from the flock and 3 were clearly fathered by BJG... the rest by the head rooster, a GLW. Currently BJG is penned separately from the flock bc head rooster would not stop chasing the BJG all over the large run. We just put 2 of the largest females in the flock into his pen - a BJG and a Blue Copper Marans. The BCM is a good sized bird, but I think I saw her run under and between the BJG legs....He is a really big male..lol.

 

[Ash85]

Unfortunately if it is male I will be rehoming him if I can. I only have 2 confirmed hens and 1 I'm not so sure about lol And if they don't crow often there there is a chance it has crowed already. A week ago I heard one crow and swore it with this one but haven't seen it do it since. Either way I plan to wait it out until I can confirm and also find a suitable home (don't want him to end up on a dinner plate) I appreciate the help! Thank you!

 

[Acre4Me]

Unfortunately if it is male I will be rehoming him if I can. I only have 2 confirmed hens and 1 I'm not so sure about lol And if they don't crow often there there is a chance it has crowed already. A week ago I heard one crow and swore it with this one but haven't seen it do it since. Either way I plan to wait it out until I can confirm and also find a suitable home (don't want him to end up on a dinner plate) I appreciate the help! Thank you!

good luck!

we’ve sold at a livestock auction. For the males, I label them with information such as breed, hatch date, source (if it helps the sale), egg color genetics (for example BJG are brown egg layers, so males have brown egg genetics). I cage them separately for sale. They’ve always sold for more than what I think someone would pay for an eating rooster/cockerel.

you can post at feed store or CL.