is it a rooster?

[Tala]

Leghorns are flighty and not very cuddly.
Mine STILL are practically uncatchable, no-touch-em's hens, even though they love my treats and come running up to me when I am in the yard. They lay pretty darn reliable though, big eggs too!

 

[bubblesegg]

I have had roosters in two batches of chicks over three years time. I've had a wyandotte rooster named Rex who was sooooo aggressive. The the second batch i had two roosters!!!!!

One Orphington the other a wyandotte!!!

It was a total wreck with the crowing, aggressiveness, and hen hopping.

Now their gone and im free of of waking up at 5:00 on a school DAY!

 

[fastpat]

Quote:
Based on my reading and observation of my chicks, the most reliable indicator of a male remains the comb development early on. Feather length an color differentiation occur much later.

I went with a straight run order and expect about 50-55% males, I understand that an up to 10% error rate in sexing chicks is the expected.

 

[Stephanie-n-Hayden]

Quote:
Oh yes, roosters can be verry gentle. My first bantam rooster was so sweet. He was OEG bantam, and was the sweetest thing. (He also made the crowing expression as a chick.) So if leghorns are not particularly friendly, should I let her be or should I keep working with her to try to get her to trust me?

 

[Jen71]

I have been posting on the other thread titled "3 week old chicken - is it crowing?".
My "crowing" chicks are both White Leghorns crossed with New Hampshire (thats what they told me). They don't appear to be roosters, from what I can tell. Pics are in the other thread.

So - maybe this silent crowing thing is part of being a Leghorn?

Also - you say they do this because they are swallowing or adjusting food. One of my girls looks me right in the eye and crows - she's not eating or drinking - and it looks like she's trying to talk to me. I know that sounds dumb, but it doesn't seem to be related to swallowing. That's just my impression though - I am certainly no expert at this!

 

[Want Less]

We are new to the chicken world but several things I've read say that Leghorns are naturally flighty (a couple books/sources said they can be aggressive too, but I assumed they were referring to the roosters since they didn't differentiate between the two) which is why we decided against getting any. We have 3 RIR and 3 black sex links and at 3 weeks old, we can tell that the sex links are far more affectionate and "tolerant" of us than the RIRs, which are more likely to run when we try to catch them. They settle down once you pick them up though.