Another Lavender Orpington sexing question.

[Finnie]

Yes, with those saddle feathers, the choc cuckoo is a boy. A very rare orp variety too!

He is back with his breeder now, and I got my refund. At least I got to own the beautiful rare color bird for one day!

 

[Faraday40]

@Finnie
Below was the pic I was orig searching for. At a glance they looked like a pair, but actually they were brothers. They were about the same age as your lavs in this pic.

Also:
I'm glad your choc cuckoo went to a place where he'll be appreciated. You may remember that we had a double barred choc cuckoo rooster - named "Brick" Short for "Dumb as a Brick" (Kept getting lost in the backyard or trapped on wrong side of fence, so we joked he wouldn't make it to adulthood.)

He was stunning and so sweet to all the hens. The only problem I had was that he was breeding my lavenders. The whole summer..... every chick hatched turned out cuckoo. The 2 alpha roos were fighting for position while this guy was happy at the bottom ..... and mating away. (Turned out he was not that "dumb" after all) He had his own BYC fan club, so I had no problem finding this mature gentle roo a new home and harem. He even remembered me when I would visit and ran up to greet me.

 

[Finnie]

@Finnie
Below was the pic I was orig searching for. At a glance they looked like a pair, but actually they were brothers. They were about the same age as your lavs in this pic.
View attachment 2375557



Also:
I'm glad your choc cuckoo went to a place where he'll be appreciated. You may remember that we had a double barred choc cuckoo rooster - named "Brick" Short for "Dumb as a Brick" (Kept getting lost in the backyard or trapped on wrong side of fence, so we joked he wouldn't make it to adulthood.)

He was stunning and so sweet to all the hens. The only problem I had was that he was breeding my lavenders. The whole summer..... every chick hatched turned out cuckoo. The 2 alpha roos were fighting for position while this guy was happy at the bottom ..... and mating away. (Turned out he was not that "dumb" after all) He had his own BYC fan club, so I had no problem finding this mature gentle roo a new home and harem. He even remembered me when I would visit and ran up to greet me.
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I DO remember brick! He was gorgeous. I’ve been wanting a “chocolate bar” Orpington ever since then.

Thanks for showing that photo of the two brothers. I strongly suspect both of mine are boys too. But I guess there is still hope for a little while.
I know the person who I bought those two from, and she will buy them back from me if necessary.

I am just thankful that now I finally have the two black Barred pullets, so I can make sex link chicks from them and the chocolate cockerel. And if I do a second generation, I should be able to make my own chocolate cuckoos.

 

[homeschoolin momma]

Thank you both! Faraday, thank you for posting photos of your cockerel. It really does help with comparisons, and that’s what anyone doing a search will need if they find this thread.

Well, I got saddle photos and they don’t lie.
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I guess I’ll be contacting the seller.

So sorry about having to give him back. With just the head, my son and I were just about convinced female, but then those saddle feathers dont lie!

 

[Finnie]

So sorry about having to give him back. With just the head, my son and I were just about convinced female, but then those saddle feathers dont lie!

Thanks. Yeah, his neck was real smooth, no pointy hackle feathers at all.

 

[Finnie]

Is there any hope at all that these are pullets?

Supposedly 16-18 weeks old. I got them last night from somebody I know. She couldn’t remember when they were hatched, but knew it was “spring”. So I was thinking, 6 months old, pullets getting close to laying, no big deal if combs are getting red. But this morning seeing them running around loose in daylight, I don’t think they are anywhere near 6 months old. So I asked her to find out the hatch date, and it turns out she bought them on July 30th, and the breeder said “6-8 weeks old”. That puts them at 16-18 weeks now.

That gives me some hope, but I just went out and took photos for this thread, and I see male saddle feathers coming in on the one with the smaller comb.

So, what do any of you Orpington experts think?

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Well, just to give some closure to this thread, it’s been two weeks, so they are 18-20 weeks old now, and they still aren’t looking like pullets. Today I had my glasses on, so I picked them up and looked closely at their saddle feathers, and they both have long skinny saddle feathers.

Even if they have the shredder gene, I was able to find enough fully intact saddle feathers to settle it in my mind that they are both boys. Oh well. I’m actually tempted to keep one of them, but I probably shouldn’t.

 

[ColtHandorf]

Judging from the first pictures, they are both cockerels.

 

[JadeFarms]

Well, just to give some closure to this thread, it’s been two weeks, so they are 18-20 weeks old now, and they still aren’t looking like pullets. Today I had my glasses on, so I picked them up and looked closely at their saddle feathers, and they both have long skinny saddle feathers.

Even if they have the shredder gene, I was able to find enough fully intact saddle feathers to settle it in my mind that they are both boys. Oh well. I’m actually tempted to keep one of them, but I probably shouldn’t.

You could make a bachelor flock and you can do different color orps although shredder gene is hard to breed out.

 

[Finnie]

You could make a bachelor flock and you can do different color orps although shredder gene is hard to breed out.

In Orpingtons, I have these two, a chocolate cockerel and two black barred pullets. I like the idea that I can make sex linked chicks with these colors. I really don’t need a lavender for my plan, but if one of them doesn’t sell, I might use both the lavender and the chocolate next year.

 

[howdyitsmia]

Could we get an update on the lavenders? Did they turn out to be for sure roosters?