Help?! Males or females?

[donrae]

Always look for those red patches, that's a boy sign right off! Be aware when buying new birds, maybe post pics here before you buy the birds. I've seen so many folks lately getting sold male birds when they were assured they were female or straight run.

 

[WalkingOnSunshine]

Always look for those red patches, that's a boy sign right off! Be aware when buying new birds, maybe post pics here before you buy the birds. I've seen so many folks lately getting sold male birds when they were assured they were female or straight run.

X2 It's almost been an epidemic of unscrupulous chicken sellers this week. I am thinking of at least three poor people that were told they were getting females or the breeder "didn't know gender" and were sold all cockerels that were very obviously male.

Hey, OP--where do you live? If it's near me I'll give that blue cockerel a good home. Just so happens I'm in the market for another rooster right now.

 

[donrae]

That blue is a pretty bird, isn't he?

 

[Chickmeg]

Thank you all for the advice. We bought them as chicks so they were just little fuzzy guys with no patches. Although I wouldn't have known to look for that anyway and now thanks to all of you I do. I really appreciate all the advice and am pretty sad to see them go. They are really friendly. I was under the impression that roosters are mean and aggressive. That blue one will come right up and climb on my son's leg and wait to be pet.

 

[donrae]

Thank you all for the advice. We bought them as chicks so they were just little fuzzy guys with no patches. Although I wouldn't have known to look for that anyway and now thanks to all of you I do. I really appreciate all the advice and am pretty sad to see them go. They are really friendly. I was under the impression that roosters are mean and aggressive. That blue one will come right up and climb on my son's leg and wait to be pet.

We can pretty much sex a chick just by those last sentences lol. Young males are always the friendliest, most outgoing chicks, everyone's favorite. Until the hormones hit, any time from 4-7 months...........then they can be horrible. Not always, but that's usually the turning point.

 

[vlselz]

We can pretty much sex a chick just by those last sentences lol. Young males are always the friendliest, most outgoing chicks, everyone's favorite. Until the hormones hit, any time from 4-7 months...........then they can be horrible. Not always, but that's usually the turning point.

That makes total since I got 3 roosters my last go around and was told they were Hens....my BR was the friendliest bird in the bunch and now the 3 I have one of them wont even come near me and when the others do attacks them lol

 

[WalkingOnSunshine]

Thank you all for the advice. We bought them as chicks so they were just little fuzzy guys with no patches. Although I wouldn't have known to look for that anyway and now thanks to all of you I do. I really appreciate all the advice and am pretty sad to see them go. They are really friendly. I was under the impression that roosters are mean and aggressive. That blue one will come right up and climb on my son's leg and wait to be pet.

For next time... or a time when you can keep a rooster: it's actually a bad sign that the cockerel is so aggressive about wanting you to pet him. In a flock of chickens, the subordinate hens groom the alpha rooster. He's forcing you into the subordinate role already, and showing you who's the boss. At maturity or some time in his first year, these are often the roosters that become aggressive towards humans.

And I feel your pain on buying straight run birds--this spring, I bought 13 EE chicks straight run. We ended up with nine of 13 birds being cockerels. Then a predator got the four females. So for my $40 spent on chicks this spring, I ended up with ZERO hens!

 

[Chickmeg]

Thank you