Australorp roo?

[TheOddOneOut]

I think I see saddles, can we get a non-blurry pic of the saddle area?

 

[Acre4Me]

If that is a male, he is very slow to grow and develop. But, if female, seems to be a bit ahead of the curve. I'll go with female bc I've had both male and female Australorp, although none right now in the flock. I see rounded neck feathers on the neck. The comb should be completely red by this point if male, and yours has a fair amount of black on the comb still.

 

[Mrs. Feathers]

I vote girl too. I raised Australorps in the past and some of the girls had me stumped the same way at that age.

 

[sourland]

11 weeks is too early for male specific feathering. I'm uncertain, but lean strongly cockerel on Sydney.

 

[Tervish]

I am enjoying seeing other opinions here! TheOddOneOut asked for another picture...it is hard taking pictures of a black bird in a shaded run lol. But here is a super washed out one to maybe see feathers better on? There is a shade stripe still across the back.

This bird is quite iridescent, hard to see in shade photos.

 

[Acre4Me]

Yes, definitely not so clear! Good pic though.

Here are my BA at 7 weeks, which is why I think female for yours. Our male was obvious at 7 weeks. the other 3 are female.

However, the wattles on yours are kinda big for an 11 week female.

 

[Gooseface]

That’s a pullet. I have a couple at 18 weeks that looked the same at 11 weeks as yours. One is huge just like you say yours is. But she’s still a she.

 

[Tervish]

Oh wow, that 7 week old roo! That is so very obvious lol. Okay, I am now convinced Sydney is a girl, just a large one! Hopefully my nest boxes a 12" deep and 16" wide will be big enough

 

[InterestingChickens]

I'd say Sydney is a pullet. This is my Australorp x New Hampshire at 16 weeks.

 

[TheFrogLady]

Is she crowing?

I'm a total newbie with chickens--as far from an expert as you can get!--but I just re-homed an Australorp Cockerel at 12 weeks. He started crowing sporadically around week 9 or 10, and was crowing regularly every morning by week 12.

Mine had a nice red comb by 6 or 7 weeks, but it was not a very large comb at all. Just really, really red. The saddle feathers came in and started to swoop downward around week 12. They were a dark, shiny green.

Here he was last week at 12 weeks: