Help me sex my 4-week-old Partridge Rock! UPDATED at 6 weeks

[Adenium]

Rats. Time to start hoping my neighbors don't mind the country ambience of an occasional crow.

If it is a roo, we'd TRY to keep him, but as it's not exactly allowed we'd need to hope our neighbors didn't mind. They aren't that far away, and maybe if he only came out of the coop in mid-to-late morning...and didn't crow TOO often......can you tell I really don't want to get rid of this chicken? I knew we should have bought more remote land, but of course we weren't planning on chickens at the time.

Ugh.

Very disappointed. But thanks for the responses guys. I'm going to go stare at (but not hold) my sad little chicken now. Maybe if I concentrate hard enough I can induce a gender conversion?

 

[dretd]

Rats. Time to start hoping my neighbors don't mind the country ambience of an occasional crow.

If it is a roo, we'd TRY to keep him, but as it's not exactly allowed we'd need to hope our neighbors didn't mind. They aren't that far away, and maybe if he only came out of the coop in mid-to-late morning...and didn't crow TOO often......can you tell I really don't want to get rid of this chicken? I knew we should have bought more remote land, but of course we weren't planning on chickens at the time.

Ugh.

Very disappointed. But thanks for the responses guys. I'm going to go stare at (but not hold) my sad little chicken now. Maybe if I concentrate hard enough I can induce a gender conversion?

Once you get confirmation, I would have a nice chat with the neighbors and explain your situation (you didn't mention if they are legal so I assume they are). A year ago I let my neighbor know that we had a roo by accident but we were keeping him until he became a problem. I asked him to let me know the instant he was bothered by him. I checked back this spring to make sure he wasn't smoldering with frustration and he said it reminded him of his childhood on the farm and he liked the crowing, so you never know!

 

[Adenium]

Nope, the hens are legal but not roos if I read the code right. I doubt we'd have enforcement unless the neighbors are unhappy, but obviously we wouldn't want to get to the unhappy neighbors point. I'm going to hold out a little hope for a couple more weeks, but boy am I bummed right now. And jealous of people with PR pullets. To avoid introducing disease and integration issues, our plan was to make one order and stick with just those. So no pretty Partridge hen for me. I will join the great pity party of this gender forum.....

 

[Adenium]

It is a rooster I'm afraid b/c of the feathering structure and shape

Just curious about this, and hoping to help others searching for PR sexing threads later. What is it about the structure and shape of the feathers that indicates cockerel?

My husband, interestingly, who has not bothered to read or research anything except a little about his precious silkies, was not surprised at the cockerel prediction. He had noticed that Special Chicken stands and walks a little differently. Now that the thought's been planted, I too notice a difference. The BR and BO seem to hold themselves a little lower, and/or have shorter legs. Special Chicken is taller and shows more leg even without really standing upright on purpose. I wonder how often that's the case with cockerels at this age?

I did notice baby spur buds, too, which seem to be growing, but I dismissed that a week or two ago as the BR had them too and many say their hens have little spurs. But I guess these will be be continuing to grow.

 

[dretd]

Just curious about this, and hoping to help others searching for PR sexing threads later. What is it about the structure and shape of the feathers that indicates cockerel?
My husband, interestingly, who has not bothered to read or research anything except a little about his precious silkies, was not surprised at the cockerel prediction. He had noticed that Special Chicken stands and walks a little differently. Now that the thought's been planted, I too notice a difference. The BR and BO seem to hold themselves a little lower, and/or have shorter legs. Special Chicken is taller and shows more leg even without really standing upright on purpose. I wonder how often that's the case with cockerels at this age?
I did notice baby spur buds, too, which seem to be growing, but I dismissed that a week or two ago as the BR had them too and many say their hens have little spurs. But I guess these will be be continuing to grow.

I have never had a PR so I con't comment on the feathers. I think roos will stand a little more upright, although with my first batch 3+ years ago I was concerned about a light Brahma being a boy becasue of her feathering and my BR was always the most bossy and dominant of all the chickens and seemed to take over the role of the protective roo. I was worried about her, too but she was more of an obvious girl becasue of her coloring.

About spur buds. All the chicks I've had have had them. I have a Welsummer hen about 1 year old and hers have grown and are probably 1/2 to 3/4 of an inch long so even that doesn't necessarily indicate boy.

 

[Adenium]

Wow. Though as I think about it I remember seeing a picture of a silkie hen with big fat cut-off spurs. That was the one image I've seen of them on a hen - though of course my chicken experience is very very very limited.

 

[dretd]

I know I took one months ago but I can't find it, I will keep looking or try to get a new photo.

 

[Adenium]

Just to help future searchers, I figured I'd post newer pics. My little Roo has declared himself loud and clear. Here he is at 1 day shy of 6 weeks.




Thanks to everybody's responses, this wasn't a surprise. But boy do those wattles grow in fast! Now I just have to hope he doesn't try to mate with our silkies, as my husband says that's cause for immediate removal.

 

[donrae]

Thanks for the updated pics, it helps a lot to see the changes.

And he will try to mate with anything female, so the silkies will be fair game to him. And first attempts aren't pretty as a rule, lots of squawking and struggling. If it's going to bother your honey that much you should plan to seperate him or rehome him.

 

[Adenium]

Argh. I had done some searches and saw a couple folks whose big roosters ignored the silkie hens. But you're right, he'll be young and hormonal and may go after anything. We'll watch and wait, and see what we have to do.

I'll try to keep posting pics here as he grows, since it was hard for me to find much steady progression pictures. I look forward to seeing his other colors come in - there's already green iridescence on his black portions.