Crowing & Dominant Males

[mjsf76]

Hello! We are new to BYC, and to chickens in general. We have 8 birds, all 4.5 months old. Four breeds, 2 of each. We are having trouble telling the gender of some of the birds. We have tried to tell by feathers, waddles & combs, but we were hoping to confirm by crowing. We have one very large, very male Aracauna who crows loudly all the time. We have 2 more of other breeds (a Blue Andalusian and a Golden-Laced Wyandotte) that we thought were boys, but now we are not so sure! WE never hear them crow - could the Aracauna just be over-powering them? Any ideas?

 

[gritsar]

I personally believe you may be right. Lower ranking roos are sometimes intimidated by the alpha roo. Some to the point that they won't even crow around the alpha.
Can you post some pics of your suspected roos and forum members might be able to help you out as to which are roos?
Welcome to BYC.

 

[ChickenToes]

We butchered 11 roos yesterday morning, and kept 3 roos. This afternoon one of them *tried* to crow for the very first time. The other two have yet to even try. So yes, I believe it was the other roosters that kept these guys from crowing.

 

[mjsf76]

Thanks for the input! Just got to read reply due to computer issues
I think the Alpha male is definitely overpowering, because our little Blue Andalusian Roo wandered off by himself yesterday and was making some crowing attempts. I was actually watching, so I knew it was him. I may post some pics of the others just to get some input before we make any final decisions!