Information Overload: Help Please

[smartgirlchic]

Hello All!

This is my first year raising chickens, so I cannot figure this particular issue out on my own. Read A LOT of information, but found there was a lot of guessing on forums with this subject. Cannot find a clear answer.

I cannot tell if all four of my Blue Orpington chickens are girls? (Must be girls. Cannot have boys in town.) Here's what I know:

1. None have spurs.
2. None have different looking feathers than the others.
3. None crow.
4. None are laying eggs.
5. They have all "fought" for pecking order supremacy. (Gone at each other with necks outstretched and even did some flying with feet in front.)
6. They have all pecked at one another. (Nothing major. No feather loss. Just pecking order stuff.) Though 2 of them have done this more than the others, with 1 winning in the pecking category and now gaining dominance.
6. They are all between 6-7 months old.
7. None are taller than the others.
8. 1 is fatter than the others.
9. They did not all come from the same farm. (2 from one farm and the other 2 from a different farm.)

The pecking order has changed recently. The one chicken most questionable to me (Pepper is the chicken's name) has always been the most friendly with us. Pepper follows us around and doesn't run away (as much) as the others when I reach my hand out to pet. (Though Pepper is still not a fan of the petting so generally avoids.) The original pecking order found Pepper at number 3, but there's been a shift as of late with Pepper at the top. Pepper is the biggest but mainly seems to eat the most and is bigger in a more round way, not in height. Pepper also has the most developed wattle and comb.

I find this all confusing in part because when I look at pictures of mature Blue Orps, the wattles and combs seem to vary so much! I've typed in "Male Blue Orpington", "Female Blue Orpington", "Blue Orpington Hen", "Blue Orpington Rooster", etc. and basically all the same pictures come up on the Internet search. Some pictures make a rooster look QUITE different than the others...in such a way that I'm certain if my Pepper looked like this I would KNOW this was a rooster. (But perhaps those roosters are more mature?) Some pictures that come up under the search make a roo look exactly the same as the hens. On this site, there's a lot of people asking for helping identifying the sex of their chickens while they are still babies, so I couldn't find anything very helpful. There's more than six thousand entries and of the pages and pages I went through, I wasn't seeing any in my chicken's age range. SOOOOO confused.

The other question to this puzzle would be- IF Pepper is a rooster but never crows, so we decide to keep him, how does that work with egg collecting?

So, here's some pics. Please help: 1-3 are Pepper. 4-5 are Saltine. 6-7 are Truffles. Notice how they all have different sizes of wattles? Saltine's wattles (4-5) are almost the same size as Pepper's wattles (1-3). Truffles wattles (6-7) are substantially smaller. An unseen chicken in the photos (Omelette) has basically nonexistent wattles. Also each one's combs are different. Pepper (1-3) has the biggest. Next biggest comb is Truffles (6-7). Next is Saltine (4-5). Omelette (not pictured) has almost no comb. Are they maybe all at different stages of maturity???

 

[ChookRanger]

Hello Smartgirlchic!
From the pictures it looks to me like Pepper is a cockerel and Truffles and Saltine are pullets. Even chickens hatched from the same brood will develop at different times. The feathers on Pepper have developed differently than the other two. The tail feathers are more pointy and curve down a bit and the saddle and hackle feathers are larger and fuller. If you decide to keep him he will probably not interfere with your egg collecting. The eggs will be fertile and thus make them a little more valuable He is very nice looking so if you don't keep him I hope you can find him a good home. Good luck!

 

[smartgirlchic]

Hello Smartgirlchic!
From the pictures it looks to me like Pepper is a cockerel and Truffles and Saltine are pullets. Even chickens hatched from the same brood will develop at different times. The feathers on Pepper have developed differently than the other two. The tail feathers are more pointy and curve down a bit and the saddle and hackle feathers are larger and fuller. If you decide to keep him he will probably not interfere with your egg collecting. The eggs will be fertile and thus make them a little more valuable He is very nice looking so if you don't keep him I hope you can find him a good home. Good luck!

Hi,

Thanks for your thoughts ChookRanger. Are fertile eggs better somehow? I never even thought about it. I'd love to keep him/her (Pepper), as I'm quite attached. Our other chicken (not pictured) to me looks a bit similar to Pepper with the tail feathers and hackle feathers. Harder to get a pic of her...she is shy. Anyways, Pepper isn't crowing. I don't know if you can have a rooster that does not crow? If this was the case, we'd keep Pepper. Fortunately the farm said they'd take any back that are not females because we live in a town where you cannot have roosters. So if we HAVE to say goodbye, at least he/she would be going back to a good place.

 

[ChookRanger]

Some say there are health benefits to fertile eggs, but I am unconvinced. However, if you have fertile eggs you can sell them on Craigslist or Ebay to people who want to hatch chicks or you could hatch some yourself. Some roosters crow infrequently while others crow constantly. You might have one that doesn't crow yet and may start later. Some roosters do not develop completely for more than a year. There are "no crow" collars available which somehow keep the volume of the crows pretty low. I am not an expert but I have been trying to learn how to identify the roosters in a flock so you may find out that Pepper is a girl after all. It's also possible that Pepper will be a quiet and polite boy who never has to go back to the farm