Aspen Anderson
Chirping
I had actually gotten an answer for this same young chicken from another forum post (https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/dont-know-what-breed-or-gender-you-have-click-here.1170156/), but the only person who responded was the one who started the forum post. While I completely trust and even agree with the answer given, my mother is still having her doubts and believes the chicken to be a hen.
Since I've only ever gotten one response regarding this chicken, I thought I'd ask what others might think, to put our minds at ease.
Here are some pictures:
(Just to make things easier, I'm using male pronouns.)
His name is Maelstrom (Mal) and he's a Dominique, almost 5 months old.
In my opinion, for the most part he looks male. The coloring is a bit dark for a Dominique rooster, but I figured he'd lighten up as he aged. When he was a chick, we checked his wings and they were very hen-like, so we assumed he was a hen until he aged and started looking a little more on the rooster side.
Despite looking more roo-like, though, he definitely does seem to have a feminine personality. For instance, he is still very low in the pecking order (might go up?), and he'll even do that little squat thing when I go to pick him up.
One other odd thing I noticed him doing was spending time in the laying boxes. I've recently been trying to better understand my chickens' behavior, and one thing is the noise hens make when they need to lay an egg. I noticed Mal doing this one day when I let the chickens out to roam. He was making the usual noise and trying to get into the laying box. I had already taken out the eggs, so I decided to let him in. I kept an eye on him and he went straight for the box. However, instead of trying to lay (he's only 4 1/2 months, so I don't think he'd be laying even if he were a hen), he walked in, looked around, then came out and proceeded to look around the hen house. It looked as if he was trying to find the eggs. I then began to wonder if he's actually been sitting on them because I had also been finding his feathers in the boxes.
Is this normal for a rooster or is it an indication that he's actually a she?
Please share your thoughts! It'd be greatly appreciated.
Since I've only ever gotten one response regarding this chicken, I thought I'd ask what others might think, to put our minds at ease.
Here are some pictures:
(Just to make things easier, I'm using male pronouns.)
His name is Maelstrom (Mal) and he's a Dominique, almost 5 months old.
In my opinion, for the most part he looks male. The coloring is a bit dark for a Dominique rooster, but I figured he'd lighten up as he aged. When he was a chick, we checked his wings and they were very hen-like, so we assumed he was a hen until he aged and started looking a little more on the rooster side.
Despite looking more roo-like, though, he definitely does seem to have a feminine personality. For instance, he is still very low in the pecking order (might go up?), and he'll even do that little squat thing when I go to pick him up.
One other odd thing I noticed him doing was spending time in the laying boxes. I've recently been trying to better understand my chickens' behavior, and one thing is the noise hens make when they need to lay an egg. I noticed Mal doing this one day when I let the chickens out to roam. He was making the usual noise and trying to get into the laying box. I had already taken out the eggs, so I decided to let him in. I kept an eye on him and he went straight for the box. However, instead of trying to lay (he's only 4 1/2 months, so I don't think he'd be laying even if he were a hen), he walked in, looked around, then came out and proceeded to look around the hen house. It looked as if he was trying to find the eggs. I then began to wonder if he's actually been sitting on them because I had also been finding his feathers in the boxes.
Is this normal for a rooster or is it an indication that he's actually a she?
Please share your thoughts! It'd be greatly appreciated.
What does her tail look like? The biggest thing that's making me lean more towards rooster for Mal is the tail.
