I have ten blue, dark blue, and black Orpingtons. I strongly suspect that more than half of them are roosters, but... I really want to rehome the roosters as soon as possible. They are now about eleven weeks old. Will I be able to look at them and know their gender FOR SURE before they either lay or crow?
To start, why not post their pictures? I'm sure people here will be able to identify them for you by now!
My BO started crowing at 13 weeks so you might not have to wait long before you know. Of course, while he was here my little SLW stayed quiet. Two days after "the boss" left, he found his voice. Point is... you might not have all of them crowing at once. (Love the title of this thread! )
Joe, post some pics and let us have a look-see. I figured out which of my brahmas were roos at about 5 weeks, got rid of the three I wasn't s'pose to have at 6 weeks. Still I do love my two remaining roos. Are you sure ya don't wanna keep just one itty bitty tiny roo?
A lot of times you'll be able to tell a difference in the males and females before they start crowing just by size, color, and their combs/wattles. Usually the roosters will be bigger with much more vibrant combs/wattles that are much bigger than the hens. Sometimes you'll have a couple of slower developers...we've had a couple of chickens in the past that we swore were hens because their combs were so much smaller than the other roosters just to hear them crowing weeks later. It's not a 100% accurate, but it's a good indicator.
If it lays, it stays; if it crows, it goes We have been saying that ll day...it's a keeper! Our chicks are 6 weeks and we are keeping our fingers crossed for hens. I see waddles growing on the twins and they are orange, not red so I think they may be safe.