12.5 week old Barnevelder, gender help pretty please

K8thagr8

Chirping
Apr 30, 2019
24
28
54
Hello! I'm hoping you can help with this one. We got 2 chicks in March and one (Olive Egger) has turned out to be a boy, so we are rehoming him. When he's free to run around, he constantly harasses our other hens and this Barnevelder. They chest bump and while his puffed out neck feathers are clear as day, the Barnevelder gives it right back to him, including tiny, but visible puffed out neck feathers. I'm not sure if that's just a chicken thing as we had never had a male until that one and our older girls never challenged each other. Would a lady have any puffed out neck feathers at all?

On to the photo bomb ...
 

Attachments

  • 20200611_080609.jpg
    20200611_080609.jpg
    815.4 KB · Views: 17
  • 20200611_080519.jpg
    20200611_080519.jpg
    446.2 KB · Views: 16
  • 20200611_080446.jpg
    20200611_080446.jpg
    522.2 KB · Views: 17
  • 20200611_080437.jpg
    20200611_080437.jpg
    564.5 KB · Views: 17
  • 20200611_080419.jpg
    20200611_080419.jpg
    458.3 KB · Views: 16
  • 20200611_080347.jpg
    20200611_080347.jpg
    725.5 KB · Views: 17
  • 20200611_075149.jpg
    20200611_075149.jpg
    678.8 KB · Views: 17
  • 20200611_073835.jpg
    20200611_073835.jpg
    531.2 KB · Views: 16
  • 20200611_073755.jpg
    20200611_073755.jpg
    940.8 KB · Views: 14
  • 20200611_073734.jpg
    20200611_073734.jpg
    398.1 KB · Views: 13
  • 20200611_073454.jpg
    20200611_073454.jpg
    943.6 KB · Views: 12
Would a lady have any puffed out neck feathers at all?
Ladies can puff their neck feathers for sure... I've even seen them mount a subordinate, crow, and grow spurs. :eek:

I'm going with cockerel on your Barnevelder due to lacing pattern ALONE (males and females look very different), comb and wattle redness at stated age, coupled with the description of interaction with other boy,.. At 12.5 weeks, his pointy saddle feathers should start coming in fairly soon. I don't see them yet.

Your other boy just had his hormones kick in sooner and your description is very common for young cockerels.. this one may or may not harass other as his hormones set in. Sometimes their antics increase after the dominant has left. Other times, you MIGHT get a gentleman. :fl
 
I've seen cockerels face off with cockerels, cockerels with pullets, pullets with pullets--so I wouldn't try to sex a bird based purely on that behavior.

In your case, I agree with EggSighted4Life that he's a cockerel, based on his coloring.
 

New posts New threads Active threads

Back
Top Bottom