14 week old Australorps -do we have a roo?

[briggate]

Being new to this whole chick thing- we have a couple of questions. Got some Australorps at 2mos. - they are now 14 weeks - and one of them seems lots more aggressive than the others, and somewhat larger. Yesterday we heard one of them trying to crow - don't know which one. I took pics and looked at them closely today - all look roughly the same, except for physical size on one of them, and its aggressive stance toward the others. So... my questions - are Australorps roosters 'hen-feathered'? Could we have a hen that is trying to be alpha? Or are we going to be butchering a lot sooner than we thought?

 

[ve]

It is boy

 

[froggie71]

Looks like a boy to me too.

 

[Hollywood Chickens]

are the feathers iridescent?
are the neck feathers thin and pointed or round and thicker?
does s/he have spurs?
It can be hard to tell with a none close up picture

 

[Matt A NC]

I have raised Australorps for a few years. Some Roos are a pain about actually getting roo feathering in a timely manner.

I would bet that he will have some more Roo looking feathers by 20 weeks old.

Matt

 

[briggate]

All 4 of them now have lots of iridescent green feathers. At least 1 of them seems to have whitish streaks in their rather pointed neck feathers. All of them have spurs- but in the drawings posted here at backyardchickens.com, it shows roos with spurs pointing up, and chickens with spurs pointing down. All ours point downward.

Please explain what 'roo looking feathers' are and I'll keep a watch for them.

Gracius!

 

[juliecox]

Australorps seem to be a little more difficult than some breeds to sex. I have an Australorp hen who has pointed iridescent feathers, a big red comb and a hooked tail. But I KNOW she's a hen because she laid eggs, went broody and hatched a half-dozen chicks! You don't get more Hen than that! Your big one might be a rooster, or might be a confused hen.

I saw a couple of videos on Youtube showing people playing the sound of a rooster crowing on their computers, to get a young cockerel to crow while they were watching. You might give that a shot - if he's friendly enough you can catch him! Other than that, I'd say just give it time, see if he/she gets a monster comb, those REALLY long pointed hackle and tail feathers and started crowing all the time! Like this manly stud ...