Golden comets color sexed, uh oh might be in trouble

[Theicequeen]

i was on a web site for a hatchery that said that Golden comets are color sexed, the females are red and white, and the males are white. SSSSSOOOOOOOO according to the Tractor suply when i got my chicks the yellow ones were Golden comet Pullets and the other ones i got were Amber links pullets. So who is worng? do i have 4 rooster golden comets?

 

[mayberrygirl]

Happened to me... glad I only got one.

 

[Theicequeen]

oh my crud are you telling me that i really do have 4 roosters? oh my what the heck am i going to do with 4 roosters?

 

[Theicequeen]

dont know if pictures would help,lol. i am going to be upset if i have to find homes for 4 roosters, how many rooster can live together?

 

[chicken_china_mom]

Ok, calm down now, lol. Depending on what hatchery those chicks came from, there is a fairly good chance that those Golden COmet chicks are not first generation. What that means is that they are only sexable the 1st generation, when the pure breed parents are mated and the first generation of chicks hatch out. If you cross a Golden Comet to another Golden Comet, the chicks are no longer sexable and white chicks could be female, and red could be male, or mixes of colors. I bought Amber Sexlinks last year at TSC, and I chose 3 from the bin, 2 reds and a white. I realized after the fact that white was suppose to be male, and I kind of bit my nails as I watched them grow, afraid that I did indeed have a male, but it turns out I got 3 pullets. I kept 2 (one was mean), one red one, and the white one who grew up to be a lovely color combination of red and white. She lays eggs regularly and is one of the best birds I have, personality wise. So don't freak out just yet. Just cause they SAY white is male, doesn't mean that the hatchery is being 100% honest. A lot of them just cross the sexlinks and say the chicks are color sexed when they really aren't. Give them a little more time to grow and develop combs and saddle feathers before you start thinking about who to rehome. And if you got red ones too, you might want to watch them too as they might be roos as well.
As for how many roos can live comfortably together, I think the number of roos doesn't matter so much as whether you have enough ladies for each of them. I think the proper ratio is 5 hens for every 1 roo, so if you kept all 4 roos, you'd need at least 20 hens to discourage fighting and territory spats. I currently am short on hens as I lost some over the winter, but my boys get along nicely for the most part. They establish a pecking order, and each roo and hen has it's own special place within that order. Some of my lower roos are not allowed to mate, while others do all the mating. Some hens also will not let any roos mate with them. It's funny how that works. I have in my Bantam coop I have 9 roosters and 13 hens, and I have a minimum of fighting. I have only 1 roo that is a brat and starts all the fighting. He will be finding a new home shortly though! With him not around I think the rest of the flock would live in perfect harmony. If you decide to keep them all, and they turn out to be roos, make sure you have multiple feeders and waterers in the coop/run because each male will claim a territory near their food and water source. Mine will share the food and water, but certain birds get chased away from the waterer from time to time, like my Dark Brahma roo, so in their run I also have the duck pool which gets cleaned out daily, and he, and several others, drink from there when they are told they can't drink from the feeder. I have not had any cock fights bad enough to cause serious injuries, and in a few more weeks I will be introducing new pullets, just cause I need new blood in there. But they can get along. So relax, it's not panic time just yet!

 

[PAheart]

Your ROOSTERS are very manly there lol...

sorry bout that..

 

[chickensducks&agoose]

My TSC had amber links mixed in with their GSLs, so likely the white ones are AMber links, and the gold or brownish ones are your comets. I wouldn't worry yet.

 

[Theicequeen]

well i panicked,lol. Went to tractor supply and figured out that the original girl didnt know anything about what she was doing, and the darker ones are the Golden comets and the paler ones are the amberlinks. They had pullet golden comets and all they had was amberlinks straightrun, so i think at least my amberlinks are straight runs. So i got six more, of course they were the different ones, it said pullets and they were assorted, i shall post pics tomorrow,lol. Two black ones, two golden colors and two yellow,lol. I might still have to get rid of some of the amber links as i think that 14 chickens will be too much, but we will see, i probably wont be able to get rid of any of them,lol. I guess only time will tell.

how old do they have to be to really be able to sex them?