Can someone tell me if this is a rooster?

[Karinspinn]

Here the picture of it when it was younger.. I'm sorry I'm new at this whole Forum thing so I kind of bad at it . I can't be

lieve I had no idea it was a rooster! The little imposter!

 

[Karinspinn]

Some young roosters will not crow if there are older, stronger roosters around until they feel like they can compete with the older roosters, in other words the Red wants your rooster to think he is a hen. My roosters did this to, when I got my Black Australorp rooster as he matured he started to crow, I introduced him to the main flock but then he stopped crowing. I was clueless to why he stopped because he was crowing like crazy a few days ago when he was in his own pen. Then I realized that he was also not trying to mate with the hens. As I watched closer I caught my other two roosters attempting to mate with the Black Australorp multiple times, the Black Australorp would never let them successfully mate but after this I realised that the other two top roosters were fooled into thinking the new rooster was a hen, despite the fact he was much bigger than both of them and had a fully grown crown. A few months later as the new roo grew his spurs in he started trying to mate with the hens, he still was crowless but the other roosters caught him mating and beat him up, he was not tricking anyone anymore. The new roo was placed below the other two and only after he was discovered to be a rooster did he start to crow again.

Wow that is what this guy has been doing then! My rooster would try to mate with it at first and then I always noticed that he would never go near it like that again.. wow I am on shock that he has passed himself off as a hen this whole time!

 

[happyhens1972]

Here the picture of it when it was younger.. I'm sorry I'm new at this whole Forum thing so I kind of bad at it . I can't beView attachment 1259146 lieve I had no idea it was a rooster! The little imposter!

Sorry to hijack your thread for a moment but I see you have a rabbit in your chicken pen....does that work OK? I have two bunnies in the adjacent pen to the chickens and assumed I wouldn't be able to mix them. I was worried about the rabbits getting chicken poop all over their feet and then ingesting it while grooming. I was also worried about their eyes getting pecked. Have you had any problems with yours co-habiting? I would love to open up both pens to all the critters

 

[lazy gardener]

I don't believe for a minute that a young cockerel can dupe a roo into believing he's a hen. In the animal kingdom, it's not at all unusual for an animal to mount and go through the motions of breeding an other of the same gender. This is not about sex, this is not about homosexuality. This is about domination. A roo will mount a cockerel simply to exert his dominance. At the same time, you may notice that your roo will not mount a pullet until she is very close to point of lay. (at least this will be the case with any roo who is worth keeping in the flock. Any roo in my flock who mounts a young pullet would be immediately invited to the crock pot.)

 

[KDMdesigns]

You have 2 roosters standing there. the Red and The Barred.

I second @Rickba's response!! beautiful birds!

 

[Kessel23]

Wow that is what this guy has been doing then! My rooster would try to mate with it at first and then I always noticed that he would never go near it like that again.. wow I am on shock that he has passed himself off as a hen this whole time!

Identifying the gender of chickens can be hard, especially when they don't want anyone to know there gender. I waited 10 months to find out the gender of my Silkie, and everyone on here says she is a hen so hopefully she will start laying

 

[Karinspinn]

Sorry to hijack your thread for a moment but I see you have a rabbit in your chicken pen....does that work OK? I have two bunnies in the adjacent pen to the chickens and assumed I wouldn't be able to mix them. I was worried about the rabbits getting chicken poop all over their feet and then ingesting it while grooming. I was also worried about their eyes getting pecked. Have you had any problems with yours co-habiting? I would love to open up both pens to all the critters

What I do is after I clean the pen out and put new hay in I put my bunnies in there to frolic around most of the day.. I've never had any of the chickens go after them or peck at them. The chickens are usually afraid of them at first and when the bunnies go over to them they usually just check them out for a hot second and then flap off.. I don't let the bunnies stay in there overnight though.. But my chickens have grown up with the buns... I introduced them to each other gradually and in a much larger penned area. When I take the buns out to be put away I usually make sure they have no poo on their paws but I've never had them get filthy.. It makes my buns happy to frolic with them and it give the chicks aome entertainment! I'd say to try it out but make sure the enclosure is kinda clean first. Your bunns will have a blast!

 

[Karinspinn]

Sorry to hijack your thread for a moment but I see you have a rabbit in your chicken pen....does that work OK? I have two bunnies in the adjacent pen to the chickens and assumed I wouldn't be able to mix them. I was worried about the rabbits getting chicken poop all over their feet and then ingesting it while grooming. I was also worried about their eyes getting pecked. Have you had any problems with yours co-habiting? I would love to open up both pens to all the critters

What I do is after I clean the pen out and put new hay in I put my bunnies in there to frolic around most of the day.. I've never had any of the chickens go after them or peck at them. The chickens are usually afraid of them at first and when the bunnies go over to them they usually just check them out for a hot second and then flap off.. I don't let the bunnies stay in there overnight though.. But my chickens have grown up with the buns... I introduced them to each other gradually and in a much larger penned area. When I take the buns out to be put away I usually make sure they have no poo on their paws but I've never had them get filthy.. It makes my buns happy to frolic with them and it give the chicks aome entertainment! I'd say to try it out but make sure the enclosure is kinda clean first. Your bunns will have a blast!

 

[Karinspinn]

I don't believe for a minute that a young cockerel can dupe a roo into believing he's a hen. In the animal kingdom, it's not at all unusual for an animal to mount and go through the motions of breeding an other of the same gender. This is not about sex, this is not about homosexuality. This is about domination. A roo will mount a cockerel simply to exert his dominance. At the same time, you may notice that your roo will not mount a pullet until she is very close to point of lay. (at least this will be the case with any roo who is worth keeping in the flock. Any roo in my flock who mounts a young pullet would be immediately invited to the crock pot.)

Well this thing sure dupped me!! My barred didn' mate with the young girls until they were ready to lay just like you said.. and you'e right he was prob assertng his dominance over the cockerel at first.. this has been such a learning experience for me! I thought I knew quite a lot but I was dead WRONG!

 

[happyhens1972]

What I do is after I clean the pen out and put new hay in I put my bunnies in there to frolic around most of the day.. I've never had any of the chickens go after them or peck at them. The chickens are usually afraid of them at first and when the bunnies go over to them they usually just check them out for a hot second and then flap off.. I don't let the bunnies stay in there overnight though.. But my chickens have grown up with the buns... I introduced them to each other gradually and in a much larger penned area. When I take the buns out to be put away I usually make sure they have no poo on their paws but I've never had them get filthy.. It makes my buns happy to frolic with them and it give the chicks aome entertainment! I'd say to try it out but make sure the enclosure is kinda clean first. Your bunns will have a blast!

Hmmm, I assume your buns are returned to a smaller set up after their 'frolics' so I can see why it would be such a blast for them....go you!! My buns have equally as big a pen as the chickens so they won't gain anything from just 'play time' in there, I was more thinking that both buns and chooks could have double the living space. So my thoughts on poopy feet were valid then? xxx