4 roos and only 1 hen! oh no! When will my chicken have baby chickens?

chicks & ducks

Chirping
14 Years
Mar 30, 2010
47
3
92
Saw another thread on here that was very helpful when it came to sexing rir's. Apparently the boys have a black line on the head and the girls don't. Well sure enough 4 of our babies have black lines and one doesn't. This sure sounds like it's going to be a problem! We don't want to return any of them to exchange for girls and we can't really get any more either. So the only other option is 'nature'-as in-when will she be able to lay fertile eggs? Is that even possible this year? They are only 8 days old at the moment. Is she going to be badgered by the 4 guys because there aren't enough hens around? Oh man
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sorry can't really help - but that sounds like my luck

4 roos & 1 hen, it will work out - it happened to me last year when I got my first set of 5x white cochins..
 
At 8 days old, it is still hard to guess the sex. You really only have a 50 percent chance of being right. But, if there are 4 on 1, yes, that will be way too many boys for 1 girl. She would definately get beat up.
As for eggs being fertile, as soon as they are old enough to lay, they can have fertile eggs. But having fertile eggs is only the first step. They would need to be hatched. RIR's aren't known for being broody.If they are hatched there would still be a possibility that the new ones wouldnt be all girls.
We had 11 baby RIR's. We traded 5 boys for girls at age 6 weeks- and one of the "girls" we got was actually a boy. One of the ones we kept thinking it was a girl turned out to be a boy. So there are not many guarantees . I'd say give it a little more time to be sure if you have mostly boys before making any decisions.
 

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