14 week old Silkie

[wilsonloria]

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This little sweetie is perplexing me. Does not act like a rooster at all but infrequently tries to crow. Shouldn't the gender be apparent by now?

 

[wilsonloria]

Another view

 

[Rowsdower]

That's a cockerel. He's very pretty.

 

[wilsonloria]

Thank you! He's also very very sweet and has taken the 3 Littles under his wing. I thought he was a hen and have been calling him Lucy. I guess I have a Roo named Lucy now!

 

[BantamLover21]

Cockerel.

 

[Wyandottes7]

You have a cockerel.

 

[wilsonloria]

I was worried about that. I have 7 hens, 2 roosters, Lucy and 3 babies of unknown gender. I have some babies hatching next week so I will have more hens. Lucy is a very sweet and low testosterone rooster, which is why I couldn't tell for sure, so I am hoping that I can keep him and possibly have him establish a separate little flock for himself. I am lucky to have the room to do that. He will be my last rooster though, so if any of the babies, or the new hatchlings turn out to be roosters, I will have to re-home them. I have my head rooster, Elvis, who is gorgeous and friendly (he sits on my lap) but he is clearly in charge. Then there is my black rooster, Springer, who had an almost fatal head injury at just 7 weeks old, which may be why he is a bit of a turd. Not friendly at all, and will charge me for no reason. Kicking dirt at him or spraying water on him from a spray bottle is all I need to do to get him to re-think that nonsense. He is clearly #2 in the pecking order.

I lost two of my hens (including my buff "lap chicken" Jacqueline, two weeks ago. I was supervising their free range and stepped into the horse barn for a second and a red fox came and grabbed 2 of them!! Right in front of me. I gave chase, but was not able to catch it before it went under my fence. I've been MUCH more vigilant since then.

I have a 8 x 12 coop with a 12 x 12 fenced and covered area, as well as a smaller, 2 nest box coop enclosure with two big dog pens attached to it. Momma (very sweet hen and the one who hatched Lucy), Lucy and the 3 babies are in the smaller coop, and the others are in the large coop. The babies that are due to hatch next week are under mother's in the "nursery" in the big coop. When those babies are full sized, as long as I supervise them together regularly during free range, can they integrate into the bigger coop???

Thanks again for all your help! Lori and the Silkie flock