Hen or Roo?

[Megsmomma]

Every one else besides donetlo looks like hen's bared rock hens are darker and roos are lighter colored

This is our other Barred Rock. She's 2. Donatello is bigger and lighter colored than her. I'm ok if we do end up with all hens, but don't have room for extra roos!

 

[mrchicks]

The gold bird on the left is a pullet, see how rounded her feathers are on her back? Nothing pointy or iridescent.



Another young pullet for comparison:

 

[Megsmomma]

Beautiful girls! The Polish is my 13 year old daughter's. That's the only one she wanted, although she really wanted a silver laced. We've only had them a few hours and she's already in love though. I know about livestock, but don't know anything about chickens. This is going to be an interesting experience!

At what age do the Polish roosters start showing the longer "pencil" type feathers?

Thanks for all of the comments. I really appreciate any insight!

 

[mrchicks]

The gold laced looks really rough in that picture, her tail had just fallen off. Actually, she's molting again right now and looks like a crazy haired pincushion.

I usually see the telltale boy feathers around 12 weeks. Some sooner, some later. We had a silver laced roo that started crowing at 7 weeks. Right now I have 3 Polish roos that are not crowing yet and are 18 weeks.

Out of all our birds I love the Polish best. My dh gave me such grief about my silly looking girls, but I see him out there baby talking them too. They are just so friendly.

 

[mrchicks]

Zulu the roo @ around 20 weeks.

 

[Megsmomma]

mrchicks - those last two posts make me have hope Dallas is a hen. Definitely doesn't look like Zulu at all. Dallas is 17 weeks today and not showing any long, thin feathers like the roos. No idea if either are crowing yet. We'll see in the next few days I suppose. Just brought them home around 6 tonight. Checked on them a few minutes ago. All clucking away while hanging out on the roost.

 

[mrchicks]

Agreed, at 17 weeks Dallas should look quite a bit more "manly" if he's a roo. She certainly threw me off, I thought she was younger. Please keep posting pictures so I can see her grow.

 

[Megsmomma]

Agreed, at 17 weeks Dallas should look quite a bit more "manly" if he's a roo. She certainly threw me off, I thought she was younger. Please keep posting pictures so I can see her grow.

We're really hoping she is a hen! I'll definitely post more pics in the coming weeks.

 

[mrchicks]

for a hen!

 

[donrae]

Did you hatch these birds yourself? The Polish is a definite male, you can see saddle feathers and the very spiky crest. The barred bird is male also, but looks more like 3 months. He's either younger than stated or just behind developmentally.