Boy oh' Boy I sure have some roos...

[augustmomx2]

My chicks turned 1wk today and my some of my 7 extra "packing peanuts" are certainly roos. I was near my brooder, petting and talking to them. Suddenly, 4 of them stood up real tall and did the "stare." Then they started pecking at eachothers beaks. The other chicks started flapping their wings and getting nervous over all the commotion. Ahhh...they're definitely going to have to go if they keep up this behavior

 

[geetabean]

Is that necessarily Roo behavior? I have 4 (4 week old) RIRs and they all do that. I thought they were just checking out the situation and seeing if I had any treats. Are mine all Roos?

Gina

 

[98 gt]

packing peanut always are, they are usually in surplus... cant hardly give them away...

 

[mjdtexan]

Some of my pullets had the same behavior. You probably do have roos though, packing peanuts generally are from what I've heard.

Hijack alert-I got my first two eggs today-Hijack alert

 

[gritsar]

If they can make a mistake and sex a cockerel as a pullet, then they can also make a mistake and sex a pullet as a cockerel. Generally however the packing peanuts are cockerels.
Still both sexes do the pecking order thing, even as babies.

 

[augustmomx2]

Quote:Well crap-ola...I'm going to have to hang onto these babies longer than I thought. I sure don't want to give away a girl! Hmmm...at least its something fun to keep me and my fam guessing

 

[Attack Chicken]

My little boys started doing their chest-bumping thing at about 2 weeks old.. and they started crowing at around 2-3 weeks lol

 

[kees]

Hey, doesn't the stare and chest-bumping remind you of the behaviour of another species?

Suzy

 

[MissPrissy]

At that age even the females will posture and chest bump. They are establishing the pecking order for their flock.

 

[jhmoore]

Actually, my extra packing peanut from My Pet Chicken was a BR hen- and she turned out to be my friendliest hen of the bunch. Keep your fingers crossed!