Do you see any roosters?

[Deebles]

I love in town, and cannot have roosters. No one has crowed so far but I don't want my neighbors complaing. My chickens are 6 months old now. We started with 12 but one of the Brahma's was easily spotted as a rooster 2 months ago and found a new home. My husband swears that one of the black australorps are a rooster, I'm not sure. I wouldn't mind if some of the golden lace wyandottes were roosters and had to find a new home, we call them the "mean girls" because they bully our other girls...

Thank you for your help and knowledge.

 

[Painted Calls]

All birds pictured are pullets.

I noticed one in particular is quite bald. Is that from the Brahma cockerel? There are a few others that have the "bred a lot" look as well. It's possible I've missed one as a cockerel, but from what I'm seeing, there are none in these pics.

 

[TheOddOneOut]

Girls.

 

[JedJackson]

They are all pullets, but it looks like some feather plucking and maybe eating is going on, which means they don't have enough space. It might be a good idea to sell those Wyandottes.

 

[Acre4Me]

all females. There would be obvious saddle feathers at 6 months of age.

Feather picking can be due to a couple of things (when there isn't a male to be blamed for over-mating).

1. Pecking order and boredom (possibly combined with not enough space). "Get out of my space, I out rank you". OR "<yawn> Nothing to do.... <yank> lol, look at her run!"


2. Not enough protein. Feathers are protein. If you are feeding a layer feed with 16% protein, they may need more protein. Treats should only be very minimal otherwise it dilutes the protein in their feed. Try supplementing with canned meat (watch the salt), fish flake food, or dry cat food (can be moistened or ground up), or scrambled eggs. Or switch to a 20% protein feed, usually called an all-flock. You'll have to supplement calcium with oyster shell if you switch away from layer feed.