Help! A rooster?Roosters not crowing until 28 weeks?Is that possible?

[msjones]

Would it be possible for a rooster to never crow until 28 weeks of age?

I have three chickens that I thought were hens. They all look the same -- same size, feathers, behavior. No big tail feathers, no huge combs or wattles.

The other day at dawn, 2 of them started a garbled, choked crowing-type sound. Can be faintly heard through closed windows. Not nearly as loud as a full-on rooster crow. Lasted about 5 minutes, off and on.

Is that a hen noise or are these certainly a rooster?

 

[gritsar]

My DH likened my roo's first attempts at crowing to that of a dog choking to death. Is that what it sounded like?



Pics of the suspect and we could give you a definite answer I'm sure.

 

[Plain Old Dee]

We have a BO hen that we thought was a rooster for a long time. She looked very roosterish, and I'm not very experienced with chickens. What had me absolutely convinced that she was a rooster was that she crowed in the mornings. An honest to goodnes full throated crow that any rooster would have been proud of. She was in a cage by herself (we didn't intend to come home from the rodeo with a chicken, but the grandson won her). One morning, she crowed as usual, but when I went out to feed her - there was an egg in the cage! She laid an egg a day for about two weeks, and the crowing tapered off. After a couple of weeks, she stopped laying, too. I think she went into moult - she wasn't young when we got her - but she's laying again, now. We have several other hens and two roosters, but "Roger" rules the roost!

 

[msjones]

Here's a picture of the "girls"... Is there an Eddie among them?

 

[usschicago1]

^^
It looks like 3 roos? I see saddle feathers on two and judgeing bye similiar comb size and redness the other one is tooo.
im not 100% so make sure you geta second and third opinion

 

[msjones]

WHAT!?!
They've hardly made a peep until two or three days ago? Is that possible? They don't fight, didn't make noise until 7 months old!
They make little nests and sit in them.
Any other opinions?

 

[SurprisingWoman]

I have three chickens that aren't doing anything, no laying, no crowing.... nothing. They are just over 28 weeks.

Two EE's are both gorgeous, both seem to do the squat sometimes and not other times, one has been red faced for quite some time.

My BA is beautiful, red comb and wattles.

I have no idea who's who and what's what but until they lay or crow I am not giving up!