I saw some picts somewhere of adults hens that have combs and waddles like this. Mind you it's only 8 weeks old, and the other two have considerably smaller combs. I tried to look for picts of saddle feathers and hackles, but the picts were not there (on the forum). What do you think?
None of my 8 week old BPR have combs that size, if that helps. This picture was taken a couple of days ago while the chicks anxiously waited for me to take down the pop door chicken wire so they could go out. Run finally finished! They were born May 10 or 11.
WOW Those are 8 weeks? mine are 9 today! no wattles or combs like that from my br I only have one astralorp that has red wattles and a comb but they are small...but bigger then everybody else's. but are NOT THAT BIG!! Yikes thats gotta be a roo! lucky you!!!
It's awful young for such large comb and wattles but I think it's just a fast maturing girl. Not considering those and looking at feather color, tail development and black on front of legs says pullet. Heritage stock pullets will have very small combs but the hatchery stock sport larger.
I got the eggs from a friend, who got them from a friend, who got them from her birds, who I think came from McMurry's a few years ago. They were hatched May 8. This bird was the first to hatch- first to feather out, so at first I thought it might be a pullet. Then that big comb grew out, and I was confused. This bird is hardly passive either, and harasses the others. I treated it like a roo until I saw the picts on mypetchicken. If I had not hatched it myself, I would sware it was older. The first pict is flash, the second shows she is as dark as the others, and in all respects, she looks like them.
The comb says boy, but the color says girl. Unless it is a roo with a single barring gene. If the hen was barred, and the father was non-barred, it would produce a bird that color that was a rooster. To look for saddle feathers, catch him/her and part the feathers in the middle of the back. Look at the tips of the new feathers coming in, in full sunlight. When they are first coming in they all will look sharp, but the roo saddle feathers are extra shiny tipped in the sunlight, even before they spread out and look like feathers. Usually they are somewhat darker than the surrounding feathers on barred birds. It may be too early for it to even be growing out those feathers yet though... but when they start to come in, you wll know what to look for.
Like onthespot said, comb says boy, coloring says girl. Strange! If you need help finding them, here is a diagram of what a mostly mature banty EE roos feathers look like.
That's a rooster...I have one identical to yours, even same kind I think. My barred rock isn't even getting any tail feathers like a normal rooster but he looks just like yours. Mine is starting to get spurs at only 10 weeks too.
