Combs and wattles

[ev-chicka]

As we’re all carefully inspecting our chick’s combs and wattles at this time of year with anticipation...I’m wondering what age is average for them to start turning more pink for a pullet vs a cockerel? Does it really depend on breed?

My guess is that cockerels start to show themselves with comb growth and pinking wattles around 3-4 weeks and pullets more like 8+weeks? Is that accurate for most or does your experience prove otherwise? Or should pullets wattles only turn pink close to POL?

 

[azygous]

In my thirteen years or so of chicken keeping, it's been my experience pullets keep their pale combs until point of lay.

Cockerels, for the most part, begin getting pigment in their combs beginning around four weeks. It will first turn deep yellow, then yellow orange, then red orange around six weeks, and will get redder from there.

The exception was a Blue Andelusian cockerel that had a pale pink comb that got a deeper red in extremely tiny increments, until it was unmistakably red around eight weeks. The BA pullet, in contrast, had a yellow comb at around three weeks, but it gradually turned very, very pale pink as the weeks went by.

So, it does depend on the breed, but by six weeks, you should be able to tell if you have a cockerel, especially if you have a pullet of the same breed to compare him to.

 

[ev-chicka]

In my thirteen years or so of chicken keeping, it's been my experience pullets keep their pale combs until point of lay.

Cockerels, for the most part, begin getting pigment in their combs beginning around four weeks. It will first turn deep yellow, then yellow orange, then red orange around six weeks, and will get redder from there.

The exception was a Blue Andelusian cockerel that had a pale pink comb that got a deeper red in extremely tiny increments, until it was unmistakably red around eight weeks. The BA pullet, in contrast, had a yellow comb at around three weeks, but it gradually turned very, very pale pink as the weeks went by.

So, it does depend on the breed, but by six weeks, you should be able to tell if you have a cockerel, especially if you have a pullet of the same breed to compare him to.

Thanks so much!!

 

[Jayteetee]

In my thirteen years or so of chicken keeping, it's been my experience pullets keep their pale combs until point of lay.

Cockerels, for the most part, begin getting pigment in their combs beginning around four weeks. It will first turn deep yellow, then yellow orange, then red orange around six weeks, and will get redder from there.

The exception was a Blue Andelusian cockerel that had a pale pink comb that got a deeper red in extremely tiny increments, until it was unmistakably red around eight weeks. The BA pullet, in contrast, had a yellow comb at around three weeks, but it gradually turned very, very pale pink as the weeks went by.

So, it does depend on the breed, but by six weeks, you should be able to tell if you have a cockerel, especially if you have a pullet of the same breed to compare him to.

Sorry to post hop- but could you help with this little one? He is 6 weeks old and has an orange comb with pink wattles. Do you think this is a boy?

 

[azygous]

By six weeks, the comb and wattles would probably be much redder if this was a cockerel. But you can't really know for sure for another two weeks. If this is a boy, the comb and wattles will get redder by the day. If it's a pullet, which I lean toward, these feathers will not get redder for another three or four months.

 

[Henora]

Sorry to post hop- but could you help with this little one? He is 6 weeks old and has an orange comb with pink wattles. Do you think this is a boy?

What is post hopping?

 

[Jayteetee]

What is post hopping?

Post hop: when one pops into another post with their own questions (unofficial definition)

 

[azygous]

We also refer to that practice as "hijacking" a thread.

 

[Henora]

Post hop: when one pops into another post with their own questions (unofficial definition)

Oops! I've definitely been doing that... but the questions are the same topic as the thread. Is it preferred to start an entirely new thread even if the topic is the same? Or how do you know when you're supposed to?

 

[azygous]

No, it's completely permissible to join the conversation on a thread and expand it with questions about the issue under discussion. It enhances the thread.

What gets confusing and annoying is when someone hijacks a thread to discuss their own issue with a chicken in their own flock, bringing in a whole new set of symptoms and information. People then get confused as to which sick chicken is being discussed and both chicken patients suffer because the discussion is atomized rather than concentrated on the original subject.