Is SHE a HE

[newchick35]

I am excited to get some advice from everyone. Is my RIR a roo? What do I do if she is?

 

[popsicle]

How old? Soup.

 

[BantamLover21]

I'm thinking cockerel, but the photo is kind of blurry.

 

[newchick35]

9 weeks

 

[Wyandottes7]

Cockerel is my guess.

 

[newchick35]

Maybe this picture will help. What do I do if she is a cockerel

 

[junebuggena]

Maybe this picture will help. What do I do if she is a cockerel

 

[newchick35]

I hope I have 5 other hens. I live out of city limits so no problem with that. I do not want to make baby chicks anytime soon. We are still trying to get our coop finished. Do I need to keep them seperated? Will he be a trouble maker. Not sure if he can be seperated. He is a big baby away from the others. That should have been my first clue to a male.

 

[junebuggena]

You will only be 'making babies' if you incubate the eggs. Fertile eggs are perfectly safe to eat. It takes a few days of being kept at about 100 degrees for development to even start.

 

[popsicle]

Also, the little blood spots in eggs are not from being fertilized--that's a different issue with the hen. You will never know the difference between fertile and unfertilized eggs unless you know the specific thing to look for (a slight difference in a small white spot).

I personally process most cockerels--they harass the pullets/hens, they ruin the feathers on pullets/hens (especially if you only have a few), and they're noisy. I have one Chantecler rooster right now that I like enough to keep around--however, they rarely make it to 16-weeks around me.