I think I have a little roo

[bobbieschicks]

I heard some squeeky crowing noises coming from my 5 1/2 week old White Leghorn this morning - the one with the large red wattles and comb. Do hens "crow" or squeek - or can I expect this one to be a roo? How early do White Leghorn roos start crowing? I'd like to have 1 rooster and I'm hoping the other 4 are pullets.

Here's the pic from last Saturday when he/she turned 5.

 

[nuttyredhead]

I would say you probably have a roo.

 

[jtr]

i have 16 week old white leghorn hens and only one has a pink comb its a roo

 

[bobbieschicks]

Quote:
Ouch! I hope that doesn't mean I have 4 roos and 1 pullet. What do you think? 4 of them look like that one with big reddish/pink wattles and combs

One looks like this - with tiny yellowish comb and no wattles showing - I thought I saw this one trying to crow yesterday. And I've caught this one in the coop with one of the others several times huddling together on the roost when the others were outside playing.

 

[bobbieschicks]

I've decided I'm not going to be hasty in determining roo or pullet with these Leghorns as the kids & I have come to love them dearly and getting rid of any of them will be difficult. Red combs or not, they're sticking around for another 8 weeks depending on their behaviors.

We're about to add 3 new chicks to our coop in the next couple of weeks - they're 2 weeks old now and we've been moving them outside during the day to their exercise pen that sits next to the run - allowing the WLs the opportunity to see them without getting to them. When the new chicks are 3.5 weeks old we plan to put them together one night in the coop after bed time and see what happens the next morning. Hoping they integrate well and preparing for them to be in another area of the coop/run if not. Then we'll have another flock this fall to mix in - we're hoping to hatch some Silkies and I may have to make yet another "area" for them.

After scouring the web for hours I've determined that in regard to WLs - sometimes people will guess the right sex and sometimes not. Several said red combs at this early age definitely meant roos while others said their WLs had red combs early and turned out to lay eggs. Many people insist hens do not crow, while several people insisted their egg layers have and do crow occassionally. So the "signs" aren't clear and the jury is still out. I'll use the wait and see approach with regards to what to do. These five WLs are all getting along fine - right now. They were hatched together and occassionally I get the running towards each other and posturing behaviors that I surmize to be "I'll beat you up if you don't" looks. Seems like at 16 weeks I will know with more certainty who is a hen - or have some major fights going on.

All this to say - I'm not ready to give up my "boys" just yet. I know there will be a day when I will have to make the tough choice of Craigslisting the roos and only keeping 1 - there's no way we'd ever have 60 hens (@15 hens per roo). However building them a bachelor pad may still be an option...

 

[catsew]

We're still in a holding pattern as well. Although I'm fairly confident mine are roos as well. But since we have all "roos" we're going to wait until spring and start over again. So they will have a short bachelor pad stay for several months. But unless I can find a home or they turn into hens, they'll move into the freezer.