99% hens - are you kidding!

[tabakereco]

Can you please help us newbies identify and sex these chickens that we are quite sure are not 99% hens. We have already given away 1 roo. The kiddos are getting pretty sad thinking about loosing more of their "girls".

 

[silkiechicken]

My guess are

Roo-Sickles and hackles evident
Hen
Hen
Roo Sickles and hackles evident
Hen


They look to be a bout 5 months old and the girls with larger combs/waddles seem to be of laying age. The BCW polish appears to be a hen at point of lay, but if you can see sickles and hackles on closer inspection which I may see, it's a he.

Edit:
Change that. That last one is for sure a girl. Her crest is round. A roo would have a pointer looking set of feathers on the crest. She's about to lay if hasn't already started. Just two boys.


AND WELCOME!

 

[arlee453]

Here's my guesses...

first pic - buff orp? Rooster

#2 - red HEN - is this a red star or other production red?

#3 - white HEN - are those green legs??

#4 - barred rock ROOSTER

#5 - polish of some type - I think HEN, but I'm not as familiar with the polish breeds.

 

[Vcomb]

rooster
hen
hen
rooster
rooster

I say the polish is a young rooster. with wc's its not uncommon for the roos to have rounded crests and then molt into pointy feathers, look at the ones just to the left of the wattle. the feathers in the tail look like developing sickles, and the hackles seem far too glossy and long to be those of hens.

 

[fullhouse]

rooster
hen
hen
rooster
no idea on the polish.

 

[SterlingAcres]

1. Buff Orpington Rooster
2. Rhode Island Red Hen
3. White Easter Egger Hen
4. Barred Rock Rooster
5. White Crested Black Polish Hen

Very pretty birds. Welcome to BYC.

 

[birdlover]

I agree with the person in the post above me. I have had Polish's before and it's true, the girls have rounded, slicked back hairdos where as the boys have hairdos like Phyllis Diller. Yours is a very pretty girl. The buff orp and the barred rock are roos and the others are hens. Nice looking bunch of chickens. I take it you can't have roosters where you are??

 

[tabakereco]

WOW! You guys are fast! Thank you all so much.

We can keep the roos but we started with the intention of "egg laying hens only" train of thought. So far we are 3 out of 6. AAggghhh! The Barred Rock started attacking my one daughter that has taken care of her since she, well HE was a chick. We found two tiny brown eggs yesterday so we are thinking its the polish. The buff roo is still pretty tame. When we gave away the first polish roo the barred rock started crowing the next morning. He has an awful crow so we thought just maybe SHE was trying to be a rooster. The only thing that is keeping us from thinking about keeping the roos is the thought of eating the eggs. But I think for sure the BR is out. Anyone live in N. California that might want him?

 

[arlee453]

You don't need to keep the roos if you just want eggs... they will lay just as well with or without a rooster around, and if you only have a small (3?) number of hens, they may be even better layers without a rooster. One rooster to 3 hens is still not enough hens where the rooster may not breed them to the point of stress since there are only 3 girls to share his 'affections'.

The minute any of my roos get nasty with me or the kids, that's the last sunrise they'll see.

 

[ParkerVA]

The tiny brown eggs are from the Rhode Island Red pullet most likely. (Polish lay white eggs.)

The Buff Orp and Barred Rock are both boys.

The white Easter Egger and Rhode Island Red are pullets.

Sorry, the Polish is a rooster. They wattles are too big to be that young, the saddle feathers are pointy, it is growing in pointy tail feathers and you can see some points coming in on the top hat feathers too. (Look closely at the white ones that are the lowest down near its neck.)

Also, don't forget that Polish are slower to mature than the Buff Orp, RIR and Barred Rock.