starsteemer
Hatching
- Aug 25, 2019
- 1
- 2
- 6
Couldn't find the exact month i bought our 3 black sexlink and 3 amberlink chicks at a Tractor Supply in spring, but they're all at sexual maturity now, though the hens haven't begun laying yet.
However as the chicks matured, 2 began to display every male chicken characteristic, and yet every time i tried to get confirmation i was firmly told sexlinks sexed as female could only ever be female.
Yet, One of the black sexlink and amberlinks had long sickle tail feathers, huge comb and wattles, would crow at all hours, and mount and try to mate our hens. The male was black with golden speckles, very obvious pointy saddle and cape feathers, and would strut and dance for the hens. Same with the amberlink, except his colors remained entirely amber, and he didn't have sickle feathers. Looking it up has shown that the black sexlink should be barred if male (he wasn't), but others have said his colors were normal for some sexlink females
Regardless, i couldn't have them fighting eachother over our four hens, as 2 other rhode island red chicks we got straight run were also undeniably roosters as they matured. 4 roosters fighting over and mating 4 hens and crowing all hours was unnaceptable, so with a heavy heart and a lot of tears, i killed and processed them for the first time in my life. When processing them, in each one, i found unmistakable testes. I've looked at diagrams and read articles on rooster anatomy to confirm that indeed, some of the organs found inside were definitely testes
So my question is how can everyone be so certain sexlinks bought as pullets are undeniably pullets? After the deed was done i wanted to know the accuracy of sexlinks and that's when i found people having trouble confirming the sex of their supposed 100% accurate sexlinks, which brought doubts into my mind on whether i'd killed an innocent hen or a guilty rooster, which after further introspection i was super sure they were all roosters.
I can't provide pictures as i unfortunately didn't have the forsight to take any as evidence, but for some context i am a first-time backyard chicken keeper, and these were my first chickens. Recently getting fall chicks (6 brahma pullets, 4 leghorn pullets, and 2 barred rock straight runs) also motivated us to eliminate the roosters, as we couldn't be sure we wouldn't get more roosters in the new batch.
I guess what i'm wondering is if anyone else has encountered this seemingly rare issue with sexlinks that are supposed to be female being roosters, or if i'm somehow mistaken and killed 2 innocent hens for the crime of being too masculine?
However as the chicks matured, 2 began to display every male chicken characteristic, and yet every time i tried to get confirmation i was firmly told sexlinks sexed as female could only ever be female.
Yet, One of the black sexlink and amberlinks had long sickle tail feathers, huge comb and wattles, would crow at all hours, and mount and try to mate our hens. The male was black with golden speckles, very obvious pointy saddle and cape feathers, and would strut and dance for the hens. Same with the amberlink, except his colors remained entirely amber, and he didn't have sickle feathers. Looking it up has shown that the black sexlink should be barred if male (he wasn't), but others have said his colors were normal for some sexlink females
Regardless, i couldn't have them fighting eachother over our four hens, as 2 other rhode island red chicks we got straight run were also undeniably roosters as they matured. 4 roosters fighting over and mating 4 hens and crowing all hours was unnaceptable, so with a heavy heart and a lot of tears, i killed and processed them for the first time in my life. When processing them, in each one, i found unmistakable testes. I've looked at diagrams and read articles on rooster anatomy to confirm that indeed, some of the organs found inside were definitely testes
So my question is how can everyone be so certain sexlinks bought as pullets are undeniably pullets? After the deed was done i wanted to know the accuracy of sexlinks and that's when i found people having trouble confirming the sex of their supposed 100% accurate sexlinks, which brought doubts into my mind on whether i'd killed an innocent hen or a guilty rooster, which after further introspection i was super sure they were all roosters.
I can't provide pictures as i unfortunately didn't have the forsight to take any as evidence, but for some context i am a first-time backyard chicken keeper, and these were my first chickens. Recently getting fall chicks (6 brahma pullets, 4 leghorn pullets, and 2 barred rock straight runs) also motivated us to eliminate the roosters, as we couldn't be sure we wouldn't get more roosters in the new batch.
I guess what i'm wondering is if anyone else has encountered this seemingly rare issue with sexlinks that are supposed to be female being roosters, or if i'm somehow mistaken and killed 2 innocent hens for the crime of being too masculine?
