Dominiques- Roosters or pullets?

[Feather Fanatic 2000]

Hello all on BYC! I have had chickens for five years now, and have gotten pretty good at telling which chickens are males, and which are females. This time though, I'm not sure. I have five 20 week-old dominiques that I bought as sexed PULLETS from MurrayMcMurray's, but now I'm not so sure that I got what I paid for. Out of the five, 4 of them are much larger and lighter in color than the fifth, and also have larger combs. Even more concerning, I'm seeing ROOSTER feathers and the beginnings of spurs. I have tried looking up what girls are supposed to look like at this age (this is my first experience with the breed), and they seem to match in color, body and wattles. They also act like little girls, as I've never seen them fight, raise their hackles, or crow. They are also much smaller than the BO rooster they were raised with, but that could just be the difference in breed. Please give me your opinions on whether or not my 'girls' are actually 'boys'!

This is a blurry picture of the head of one and the tail of another

the bigger, lighter ones are my 'maybes' the dark small one is definitely a girl, and the large golden one is the BO cockerel that was raised with them

This three of the four hanging out. Notice the little nubs on the legs and long, curling tails?

 

[jaclyncarneal]

My hen had a curling tail too. It eventually poofed up. BUT in ur pic of the 3 hanging the 1 closes to the wall has a mean "cheese curl" feather. So im guessing that ones a roo. Good luck

 

[Feather Fanatic 2000]

Her color is darker than mine though... She kind of looks like the older version of my little black one. I'm hoping that you're right though. In five years of raising chickens, these are the sweetest, most passive I've ever had. Unlike my other ones which barely tolerate being picked up, these guys seem to enjoy being cuddled! The golden rooster (I named him Midas) is also super sweet though... One or two more roosters I could manage, four is too much.

 

[junebuggena]

Hello all on BYC! I have had chickens for five years now, and have gotten pretty good at telling which chickens are males, and which are females. This time though, I'm not sure. I have five 20 week-old dominiques that I bought as sexed PULLETS from MurrayMcMurray's, but now I'm not so sure that I got what I paid for. Out of the five, 4 of them are much larger and lighter in color than the fifth, and also have larger combs. Even more concerning, I'm seeing ROOSTER feathers and the beginnings of spurs. I have tried looking up what girls are supposed to look like at this age (this is my first experience with the breed), and they seem to match in color, body and wattles. They also act like little girls, as I've never seen them fight, raise their hackles, or crow. They are also much smaller than the BO rooster they were raised with, but that could just be the difference in breed. Please give me your opinions on whether or not my 'girls' are actually 'boys'!
View attachment 1143908
This is a blurry picture of the head of one and the tail of another
View attachment 1143907
the bigger, lighter ones are my 'maybes' the dark small one is definitely a girl, and the large golden one is the BO cockerel that was raised with them
View attachment 1143903
This three of the four hanging out. Notice the little nubs on the legs and long, curling tails?

All chickens have spur buds. But those three have very clearly visible male saddle feathers.

 

[RoostersAreAwesome]

All chickens have spur buds. But those three have very clearly visible male saddle feathers.

X2

If a chicken has rooster saddle feathers (long and pointy) that means it is a rooster.

 

[RoostersAreAwesome]

Her color is darker than mine though... She kind of looks like the older version of my little black one. I'm hoping that you're right though. In five years of raising chickens, these are the sweetest, most passive I've ever had. Unlike my other ones which barely tolerate being picked up, these guys seem to enjoy being cuddled! The golden rooster (I named him Midas) is also super sweet though... One or two more roosters I could manage, four is too much.

You might want to check out this article if you're worried about too many roosters: https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/rooster-flocks.72998/

 

[drumstick diva]

Looks like boys to me

 

[ChickNanny13]

Agreeing, all cockerels

 

[Feather Fanatic 2000]

That is pretty much what I thought. While I can deal with the extra roosters, I really could have used the hens. If I wanted straight-run, I would have just gone that route and saved myself a lot of money... Oh well. I'll probably save one or two of the sweetest boys and breed them with the one female to get more babies AND I'll contact the hatchery and ask for a refund of my money (they have a 90% guarantee on all sexed poultry and I got four boys and one girl.) I'll just have to figure out what to do with the two or three I don't keep... My flock of 41 already has one mature rooster and the golden cockerel, I really don't need another four males running around. The extras will probably find themselves floating in broth.

Oh, one question though. Does anyone have anyone know why they took so long to start appearing male? I only barely started noticing this around mid-august, when they were already about 4 months old. I've always had males that started reddening up and growing their combs before they were six weeks old. Is this common for dominiques?

 

[JedJackson]

That is pretty much what I thought. While I can deal with the extra roosters, I really could have used the hens. If I wanted straight-run, I would have just gone that route and saved myself a lot of money... Oh well. I'll probably save one or two of the sweetest boys and breed them with the one female to get more babies AND I'll contact the hatchery and ask for a refund of my money (they have a 90% guarantee on all sexed poultry and I got four boys and one girl.) I'll just have to figure out what to do with the two or three I don't keep... My flock of 41 already has one mature rooster and the golden cockerel, I really don't need another four males running around. The extras will probably find themselves floating in broth.

Oh, one question though. Does anyone have anyone know why they took so long to start appearing male? I only barely started noticing this around mid-august, when they were already about 4 months old. I've always had males that started reddening up and growing their combs before they were six weeks old. Is this common for dominiques?

Dominiques aren't normally slow to develop but there are so many factors involved that there's no telling why your birds took so long to show their true colors. It could be something genetic in that strain of Doms, it could be the rose combs confused matters, it could be the fact that there were so many cockerels in that flock that it inhibited sexual maturation. But on barred/cuckoo breeds that are purebred you can tell the cockerels from pullets very early if you look at the amount of white in the barring-- males have much wider white bars and are lighter colored in general.