Cochin Gender....again

[madicakes]

I have asked this before when this bird was much younger, and I can't seem to pinpoint whether I think it's a hen or a roo. I'm leaning towards roo and my husband thinks hen. No crowing or egg laying yet. It's an 18 week old blue cochin.

 

[BantamFan4Life]

Pullet.

 

[Wyandottes7]

Looks like a pullet to me, too.

 

[madicakes]

Oooh, I hope it is!

 

[Lady of McCamley]

At 18 weeks...that is a pullet....getting close to POL too.
LofMc

 

[madicakes]

Thank you so much everyone. This "little" girl has had me confused for the longest time. At about 8-10 weeks old I was convinced she was a roo. Then I felt like her tail feathers were getting whispy like a roo, so I was really confused....and didn't want to get my hopes up I'm so glad I get to keep her now. She is the only one that made it out of the 9 eggs I tried to hatch.

 

[BantamLover21]

I'm thinking pullet, too.

 

[madicakes]

Well, she's definitely a "she". The silkie who raised her is broody once again. She is sitting on some eggs right now. I have the broody fenced in around her nest box, as she was skipping back and forth to boxes. The past several days I noticed one of the girls had been jumping the fence and laying an egg in her nest, then jumping back out. The silkie's water and food was constantly being knocked over. Yesterday the culprit was caught. The cochin was in the fenced area with the silkie when I came home. So, I'm assuming it's she who has been laying the eggs in the nest for the past few days!! I really need to figure out how to determine which hen is laying which egg.

 

[madicakes]

Well, now I am thoroughly confused. I let my girls out last night and was watching them. This cochin had very rooser-like behaviors, keeping an eye on things, and even mounted one of the other hens, and was trying to fight with my silkie roo. (Which was funny because BB, my buff brahma hen, came to save the day and got in between them, running off the cochin). So, unless I have a hen who is showing dominance by mating other hens, and fighting with my roo, I have a roo So, if it's a roo, that means one of the other hens was sneaking in and out of the silkie's caged area to lay an egg, and the cochin was going in as well, and just happened to be the one we saw in there. The cochin is very attached to my little silkie hen.

 

[donrae]

Do you have an updated pic?