Help us please! Roos or hens?

[FeatheredAngler]

We are new to this and would appreciate any input from experienced folks. Below are pics of 2 chickens. The first is an EE, we think (were told was an Ameraucana), the second is a Barred Rock - both about ten weeks old.

Any help would be appreciated!!

Here is Penny the EE. We really hope this is a hen.



This is Thelma...or maybe Theo????


Let us know if you need better photos. Thanks again -

 

[Maddywidget]

In my opinion, but i am NOT a professional haha,

Penny looks like a roo, while thelma looks more like a hen to me

 

[Coupe de Ville]

Those both look pretty henny to me. We have 2 Americauna hens and I have heard the girls and boys don't look a lot different, the Americauna's tend to stand pretty errect so the posture is hard to guess since the Roo's are usually very upright and Hens more horizontal in their posture. Feathers also all look pretty basic despite the patterns. Roo's have much fancier hackles (different feather shapes too) the girls of these breeds are nice looking, but the boys are really lookers. So all in all I vote both hens.

 

[Time-Out]

Penny is a hen. Thelma confuses me a bit. Her comb and wattles are so big and red for that age... they make me want to say roo, but I can't see any saddles feathers growing, although they could be hidden under her wing. Sorry for not being very helpful!

 

[Nicole01]

They both look like hens. The one I'd keep an eye on is Thelma just because of the comb size. Are you sure they are not older then 10 weeks? What breed is Thelma? A barred rock right?

 

[noitulover]

They look older than 10 weeks to me. I'd be a little concerned because they both have large wattles/combs for 10 week olds with a bit more red tint than I would expect.

However, no pointed saddle/hackle feathers yet!

 

[Nicole01]

I also think they are older then 10 weeks. When I hatched mine 3 weeks ago, I was surprised how quickly they actually grew. I was buying chicks older then what I thought they were.

 

[Ourfamilyflock]

I agree with the above post, I think these Girls are older then 10 weeks, the Barred looks like ours does at 20 weeks. Barred Roos are lighter in color, they are more white with black bars rather then black with white bars, so I'm pretty sure thelma is a she. The EE looks like a hen as well, shes just big, which is possible they are large birds.

 

[FeatheredAngler]

Thanks for the feedback. We got both of these birds a couple of weeks ago after two of our original chicks turned out to be roos. We are going by the age they were said to be. Both of these birds were smaller than our original flock (Golden Comets, Black sex links, Austrolorp and RIR) which we have had since 1 week old and are now 10 weeks old. We tried to get pullets that were about the same age as the rest of the flock.

 

[hdowden]

both are pullets and both are older than 10 weeks. there are several things that can slow a chicks growth such as wrong feed and not enough heat...if anything watch the barred rock