Are they boys too??

[Lizl]

Early May we bought 50 Leghorn pullets (so we thought). They were 9 weeks old then and looked all girly. Last week we finally admitted that 44 of them were actually fiesty young men. Although it was heartbreaking, we had to get rid of them, as it's quite heavy on the budget! We kept 6 that looked like hens with small combs and a more "flat" built. We also kept one rooster with quite an attitude! But now, all of a sudden, the girls seem to turn into boys again! The combs are definately bigger and redder, and they walk more upright. Someone mentioned that when there are a lot of roosters together, some will "pretend" to be hens to avoid fighting. I have no idea whether this can be true. They are about 20 weeks old now, and although they're not crowing, they're not laying either. Should I just leave them be for now and see what happens?

 

[AZBootsie]

Hard to believe you got that many roos. The combs do get much redder the closer they get to point of lay. Can you post a picture??

 

[AZBootsie]

I have never had leghorns, but all of my Roosters have crowed long before 20 weeks. Hopefully you have pullets??

 

[featherz]

leghorn girls have HUGE combs, and at 20 weeks they would be close to (if not already) laying. Plus a leghorn boy at that age would definitely have saddle feathers. Post a pic of the suspects!

girl:

 

[greenegglover]

You may have given away some pullets....44??? I was supposed to have 3 white rocks, but one ended up being a leghorn. I thought from week 10 to week 18 it looked like a roo, but roos are much wider and yes girls have tails going straight up! Mine layed her first pretty white egg at 18 weeks so that ruined my roo theory. Check out the pics at www.mthealthy.com to see the difference.