20 weel old leghorns..... any roos??

ShanCarl1971

In the Brooder
8 Years
Apr 23, 2011
90
6
41
At 20 weeks old, should I be able to tell by feathering if any of my White Leghorns are roos?? Several of them have already started laying, but I'm not totally sure which ones yet. I was sure, by behaviour, that a few were roos, especially since they came from a straight run bin. One of the "surely a roos" is one of my layers!! So, now I question the rest, because it was the most "roo-looking" to me. No one is crowing, and no one seems to have any different feather patterns on them. HELP!! lol
 
You are great at picking out the hens because you can tell leghorn roos by about 4 weeks and they are crowing by 12 weeks. They are very annoying creatures!
Actually, I have this theory that the ones with the tail feathers at 4 days old are the hens. Did you pick all with tail feathers?
 
LOL.....It was my very first chick purchase EVER!! I was mad at myself for not being able to wait for a pullet bin!! (I was way too excited to wait!) I have looked at pictures of White Leghorn hens and roosters, but wasn't sure how long it would take for the roos to start LOOKING like roos. And nobody had ANY feathers when I got them at one day old. My daughter actually picked them out. Maybe the hatchery sent all pullets, even though they were supposed to be straight run????
 
At 20 weeks old, a White Leghorn rooster should have obvious saddle feathers (long stringy pointy feathers just in front of the tail), and have already been crowing for a while. If you aren't hearing any crowing you probably have all hens.
smile.png


Pics would help, just to be sure!
smile.png


Here's some pics of White Leghorns, showing the saddle feathers of the roosters vs. the rounded feathers of the hens.
wink.png
http://www.cacklehatchery.com/whtleghornpage.html

In
White Leghorns, roosters usually have huge upright combs and hens usually have large flopped over combs.
 
Thanks Cowgirl71. I have looked at pictures and knew what the roosters should look like, but didn't know how soon I should expect them to develop "the look". LOL I was thinking that I should definitely be able to tell by now since several of them are laying already!! I just wanted to ask the "experts" here to be sure, so that I could stop torturing myself trying to figure it out! LOL

Thanks again everobody!! Now, I'm SURE that all of mine are pullets!! (except the silkies....lol....still waiting on that one.....maybe I should post pics of those today!?!?)
 

New posts New threads Active threads

Back
Top Bottom