How did you find out your chicken was a rooster?

[OmnipotentOrpington]

This is just a poll, but if it's in the wrong place, please do move it! I was wondering how everybody found out that their chicken was a rooster! I think I've covered everything, but if I've forgotten something, feel free to suggest it in the comments!

 

[TheOddOneOut]

Well, I don’t have any boys, but experienced sexers (me, kinda) are able to spot them with many things. Comb, attitude, pattern, feathers.

 

[humblehillsfarm]

I've experienced raising two roosters. One was purchased as a sexed blue copper maran. The other was hatched as a mutt along with his sister. They were identical except his comb grew significantly faster than hers. I knew he was a male, and at 11 weeks he crowed. It was an adorable little crow.

 

[EmmaRainboe]

Feathers and comb were extremely obvious.

 

[Sally PB]

One crowed at 8 weeks. The other two didn't crow much, but they all had the male feathering come in about the same time.

 

[3KillerBs]

I don't have a rooster in the current flock, but with the in-town flock:

#1-5, The Red Boys

I assumed that my packing peanuts would be male and once they got old enough to be sexable I put photos on the forums here to confirm. Yep. They were.

#6, Marion (formerly Rosemary)

It was the hackles and saddles that made me suspicious that my only Light Brahma in that flock was a boy. I remember handling him and looking at his hackles across my fingers to see the true shape of the feathers, not just the shape of the color pattern.

But I was still able to hope that he was a hen up until a week after The Red Boys went to freezer camp.

Then he started crowing.

We let him stay because he was beautiful, docile, and had a lovely, deep-toned voice.

 

[Allthefloofs]

Our little guy had a big comb at 3 weeks that kept growing, he also started with pink wattles at 4 weeks. It was pretty obvious. He started crowing at 8 weeks at which point I was glad I gave him a boy name in the beginning. Wyatt Chirp stayed Wyatt Chirp .

 

[Willow2253]

Our first we didn’t realize was a boy until he started crowing. After that I’ve been able to tell pretty accurately by comb and waddles, except one that tricked me recently because he didn’t have much of either until well after hackle feathers came in.

 

[FuzzyCritters]

Would autosexing count as 'sexed that way' or 'feather patterning'? I have a couple of Cream Legbar roos (which are autosexing).

For my other roos, I knew when they started getting big combs. For my Dark Brahma bantams, when they started getting a male pattern instead of female lacing. I purchased one Barred Cochin roo as an adult.

 

[OmnipotentOrpington]

Would autosexing count as 'sexed that way' or 'feather patterning'? I have a couple of Cream Legbar roos (which are autosexing).

For my other roos, I knew when they started getting big combs. For my Dark Brahma bantams, when they started getting a male pattern instead of female lacing. I purchased one Barred Cochin roo as an adult.

Feather patterning if you weren't sure of the sex when they first hatched, sexed that way if you bought or bred them to be roosters.