I am new to the site and to be honest don't know much about chickens but have been getting a crash course. At an easter egg hunt they were giving away free chickens and my son got attached. Well one thing led to another and we have 6 beautiful chickens. We were told when we got them that they were all hens, but I don't know breeds etc. One of our chicks has seemed to grow quicker than the others with a larger comb. I had been worried that maybe it was a rooster, but she does not have a spur on the back of her leg. Since the rest of them have only begun to sprout their combs I couldn't compare--I just assumed she was older than the rest (they are all from different breeds). Today the neighbor told me that the chickens woke her up at 5am crowing...could "she" be a rooster? If so, when do they start mating...will my chicks (who are probably about 16 weeks old) lay fertilized eggs, or when does that behavior start??
I cannot tell you if "she" is a rooster or not - but know this. If there are only hens in a flock, sometimes the alpha female will crow. This doesnt neccesarily mean "she" is a "he". If they were younger, i could tell you how to sex them. Usually, you can tell a noticable difference in the waddles about a moth after birth (or as far as my experience has gone, that has been true)
First...... If you can show pictures that would help us help you. We love pictures! With my roosters I noticed that their combs and wattles grew much more quickly then the hens. They of course are also much bigger. I also noticed that their stance was more straight up and down and they had thicker legs then the hens. My roosters started to crow at about 15 or 16 weeks. It doesn't sound like crowing, more like their in pain. It is very funny to watch. They will probably start mating with your hens very soon. My roosters started about 16 weeks or so. I think that when they start mating they are fertile. But, my roosters started mating with my hens about 3 or so weeks before we got our first eggs. Again, welcome to BYC! Hope this helps!
Welcome to the insanity! LOL Pictures are a great help when trying to figure out who's a he and who's a her... Some breeds do start to crow really early. My Leghorn cockerel Jerry started around 6 weeks.
Pics would be a great help and we could help you with the breeds as well. Did they have feathers when you got them at Easter? Or just a ball of puff?
Thank you all for your advice. I'm attaching pictures as you suggested. Maybe these would help. I have two kinds of chickens. I would be interested in the breed of both (white and brown), but its the brown one that I'm afraid might be a rooster. So one of my chickens is bigger than all the others. I just assumed it was older...how do I know? I may just have to seperate them so that I don't get a bunch more chicks instead of eggs??!!?? [/img] [/img]
Your 'brown' chicken looks like a Rhode Island Red ROOSTER. Your whitish chicken looks like an Easter Egger hen.... or perhaps a Salmon Faverolle... I'd have to see the legs. You could always have dinner using the rooster!
Hmm... that brown one looks awfully roo-ish to me...unless it is VERY much older than the others. If we could get a full side view that would help be definitive - roos have longer tail feathers, generally. Having a roo just means that the eggs your girls lay will more than likely be fertile. The hens won't sit on them or hatch them out though unless 1) you stop collecting the eggs so a pile builds up, and 2) they actually decide to go 'broody', which means they stop laying and decide to sit on the eggs to hatch them out. Most breeds of chickens have been selectively bred NOT to go broody, so you may or may not have a problem. I'm sure someone else can come along more familiar with the breeds you have that can tell you if they are a 'broody' breed or not. Also, it doesn't matter one bit if you even HAVE a roo or not -a hen goes broody with or without a rooster - she will do so even if she is sitting on nothing at all - it's purely hormonal. If you don't want any chance of babies, just collect the eggs as they are laid and refrigerate and/or eat them. There is basically no difference in appearance, taste or anything else in fertile eggs vs non-fertile eggs.
Shows what I know Arlee453. I assumed the only way we could eat the eggs was if they weren't fertilized! Well I guess that makes the issue less of a concern because I'm deffinitely looking forward to having our own eggs for breakfast! Now we'll just have to see what to do about the neighbor and the crowing...
Well I don't have any pictures of their feet, but none of the white ones have feathered shanks so I don't think its a faverolles. They deffinitely look like rhode island reds, and I think he does look like a rooster. Do all roos have a spur on their shank?? Thanks all for the help!