GenDer aGe???

[m2wandc]

At what age (hopefully sooner then laying or crowing) can you be reasonably sure you have a pullet or roo???

 

[gritsar]

Depending on the breed, some start showing the secondary sex characteristics between four and six weeks old. With others it takes awhile longer, but certainly by about 12 weeks I'd say.

 

[m2wandc]

So the one silkie I thought was a roo...hasn't cockadoodle dooed yet...and they are 12 weeks today...guess that means I'm not out of the woods yet...

....we'd keep it anyhow, at least I THINK hubby would give in...he mentioned the other day that the goofy black birds (aka the silkies) are growing on him...just wishes they would go INSIDE the coop at night, because he has to go searching in the dark for them and put them in the coop...they for some reason won't go in on their own???

Do you think I'd hear the cockadoodle doo if it started to do that, or does it take a long time before they get their real vocal cords???

 

[Barrett Farm]

I bought six new chicks that hatched on Feb 16, 2009. Back in April the Leghorn gave himself up as a roo when his voice began to change and his feathers were beginning to look longer than hen's.

Over this last week, I was hearing clucking and happier hens and then one of my young pullets (one of the two wyandottes) stretched out "her" neck and strained to make an errrerrrrr sound. Now she is doing 8-9 times a day. I think she was standing on the laying boxes this afternoon while she strained to be heard. Can she be a he?

Tomorrow I will secure her into a private pen. I thought I had two small eggs one day, one from each of the two wyandottes. But I can't remember when I had two eggs from the pair and that makes me wonder if she has been a roo all along. The tail feathers look a little longer then her wyandotte partner's and the roo's legs and feet look a little larger too only comparing to the two wyandotte that I bought back in Feb.

Has anybody heard about a roo waiting this long to take his place?

 

[m2wandc]

I guess one way to find out is when they are laying eggs to put the suspect in a crate of it's own...but then that might jack with my flock dynamics...so I don't know if I'll do that...the comb that popped out so quickly and lead me to suspect it is no bigger then it was back then...so I'm wondering if I could get lucky and have too girls on my hands...oh that would be great!!!