Lavender Orpington Gender at 11 Weeks

[Englishable]

Our Lavender Orpingtons will be 11 wks old on Wednesday. We've been trying to band the ones that we are certain are roosters, but a few of them seem to fall somewhere in between what is obviously a rooster or what is obviously a hen. Can anyone help?

Here is a collage of some of our chickens. We have 22, and about 8 of them look like the ones marked rooster here, 11 are clearly hens, but about 3 of them look like the bird on the right - its comb is about half as high as the roos, still kind of yellow-ish, and just the beginnings of wattles (unlike the roos, which are now quite pronounced). They are all the same age, almost 11 wks.

Thoughts? Thanks!

 

[Englishable]

Here's another photo of one of the mystery genders:

 

[ChickNanny13]

Beautiful birds! LOVE Orpingtons & lavenders are my favorite. You got a very sanitary set up, love it. Anyways, I'm just guessing so don't hold me to it but the picture with the ???? I'm thinking Cockerel, comb & wattle not very red but I think I see the "hackle" feathering (neck feathers slim & streamy looking) starting. Can't see the "saddle" feathering (base of the tail again streamy slim feathering), perhaps another picture? Can look at these birds forever

 

[donrae]

Your mystery birds are cockerels. They're just a little slower than the other boys.

 

[Englishable]

It's hard for me to get anything done because I just want to sit in the coop and watch my birds! They are funny little creatures! We also have 21 coral blue guineas in with the chickens, about 7 weeks old. I started a thread about our coop build, and I need to update it with new photos now that it's just about complete (at least, complete enough to put the birds in it!). It's 22 x 16, where the chickens are, with an attached storage area that's 16 x 8. The 6' corner of the shed area is an infirmary/broody hen area, but we just have open studs right now so it's closed off to the birds.

Anyway, here's another photo, still not great, but kind of shows a mystery bird's butt feathers (the one on the left. The one staring me down is a roo - you can see we gave him a black leg band; he's one of the friendliest/curious chickens we have). I'll try to get a better photo later - the lighting isn't that great because it's soooo gloomy and rainy today (though we do have lights in the coop, I just didn't think to turn them on!).

 

[ChickNanny13]

Wow, you got a GREAT set up. I wanted to get some LO but knowing how big they get, decided not to since I'm limited with space and I wanted to try out some Ameraucanas this time. I have had Blue, Black & Buff in the past but can't keep Cockerels which the Blue & Blacks turned out to be. Had too many Buffs (size) for my Run/Coop so sold them & got some Wynadottes, they were pretty mellow birds too.

I live in a residential area with only 10K sf property, fenced with a 8x12x7 Run/Coop that 4 chickens "fit nicely" but Chicken Math is killing me.

 

[Englishable]

Here's a few more photos, some of these may be the same birds...







And then a head and body shot of two of them, thanks to help from my husband, World Class Chicken Wrangler:





Ever since we ran out of meal worms to lure them, the chickens are much harder to catch This last one had no tail feathers for so long, and even now, in comparison to the others (pullets and cockerels) its bottom looks pretty bare. But he has a medium comb and the start of wattles so I'm guessing he's a cockerel.

Probably, as donrae said, all the mystery ones are. I was hoping for at least a dozen pullets but 10 or 11 is not too far off!

 

[BantamFan4Life]

Here's another photo of one of the mystery genders:

Cockerel

 

[drumstick diva]

cockerel

 

[JaeG]

Cheese is a good alternative to meal worms for nabbing chickens. They love it!