Help Determining Sex of Bovan White

[sarah1911]

I've been driving myself crazy looking up stuff on line to try and determine if we have a male or female. Decided to just ask the experts.

My daughter's 3rd grade class hatched eggs and we adopted one of the chicks. I was told they are Bovan White Leghorns. The chick is 17 days old. I'm starting to worry I have a rooster.

We live in town and will have to find a new home for it if it is.

Thanks in advance for any help! It's greatly appreciated!

 

[rebrascora]

With a comb that big and pink already it's looking like a cockerel to me. Sorry, not what you want to hear I know..

 

[sarah1911]

With a comb that big and pink already it's looking like a cockerel to me. Sorry, not what you want to hear I know..

No, not what I wanted to hear but what I was pretty much expecting. Thank you! We'll keep the chick until we are 100% sure. My family is going to be bummed. It's the sweetest, most affectionate little chick ever!

 

[2chicksagain]

Sorry, it looks like a cockerel to me, too.

The comb is too big and no tail. (hens grow their tail 1st)

 

[rebrascora]

If it's any consolation, cockerels are usually the friendliest until they reach adolescence and then they often turn into jerks.

I'm a little disappointed that the school allows chicks to be adopted as singles like this. Chickens are social flock creatures and it's really not fair to bring them up on their own, especially when they have been hatched with others and then separated. I would imagine some will suffer depression and stress from suddenly being alone and if they are eventually to be rehomed, may then have difficulty reintegrating with other chickens as they won't have learned how to socialise. Surely there is a bigger lesson to be teaching children here on how to care for animals and their needs rather than just showing how an egg hatches and develops.

 

[2chicksagain]

If it's any consolation, cockerels are usually the friendliest until they reach adolescence and then they often turn into jerks.

I'm a little disappointed that the school allows chicks to be adopted as singles like this. Chickens are social flock creatures and it's really not fair to bring them up on their own, especially when they have been hatched with others and then separated. I would imagine some will suffer depression and stress from suddenly being alone and if they are eventually to be rehomed, may then have difficulty reintegrating with other chickens as they won't have learned how to socialise. Surely there is a bigger lesson to be teaching children here on how to care for animals and their needs rather than just showing how an egg hatches and develops.

Agreed.

 

[sarah1911]

Sorry, it looks like a cockerel to me, too.

The comb is too big and no tail. (hens grow their tail 1st)

It does have a little bit of tail feather, but not much. Our other two younger chicks (a bantam and a rhode island red) definitely have more tail.

 

[sarah1911]

If it's any consolation, cockerels are usually the friendliest until they reach adolescence and then they often turn into jerks.

I'm a little disappointed that the school allows chicks to be adopted as singles like this. Chickens are social flock creatures and it's really not fair to bring them up on their own, especially when they have been hatched with others and then separated. I would imagine some will suffer depression and stress from suddenly being alone and if they are eventually to be rehomed, may then have difficulty reintegrating with other chickens as they won't have learned how to socialise. Surely there is a bigger lesson to be teaching children here on how to care for animals and their needs rather than just showing how an egg hatches and develops.

Oh I completely agree! I was actually quite shocked they allowed them to be adopted. My husband and I had been toying with the idea of backyard chickens for a few years now, but I worried about the families that took home a chick and had no idea what they were doing. We had done our research and set up everything first. The kids were given the option to adopt more than one chick, but we just went with one since we had no idea what the sex would be. We got 2 more chicks (a bantam and a Rhode Island Red) as soon as we could, which, due to the stupidity of the people at our local store and their inability to keep reserved chicks, ended being several days later. Our poor leghorn cried and cried those days it was alone! It got LOTS of cuddle time until the new chickies came in, and it's been happy ever since.

 

[sarah1911]

I would imagine some will suffer depression and stress from suddenly being alone and if they are eventually to be rehomed, may then have difficulty reintegrating with other chickens as they won't have learned how to socialise.

And for what it's worth I feel terrible about rehoming. We will wait until the chick is old enough to be outside and it will go to a family that we know personally.

 

[sarah1911]

Here is the tail, if that helps at all.