Lavender Orpington Gender at 11 Weeks

[ChickNanny13]

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

Dairy's not good for chickens, so I've read.

 

[JaeG]

Dairy's not good for chickens, so I've read.

Milk can cause digestive upsets, though we know a breeder who gives her chicks raw milk soaked bread without any issues. That's non pasteurized, un-homogenized. We drink raw milk ourselves and my digestion has been so much better for it. Cheese as a treat or in leftovers is fine.

 

[Englishable]

Thanks everyone!

So basically I can assume that anyone that has combs and wattles, no matter how little, at this point is a cockerel? We might have more chickens in our freezer this winter than we had hoped for! Because we want our hens to lay viable eggs, we're going to keep the two nicest roosters, hence the leg banding - so we can keep track of who's being a jerk, who's the friendliest, etc. The rest of the boys are going in the freezer.

At what age should their gender be unmistakable? Wouldn't want to accidentally butcher a hen....

And at what age are Orpingtons generally "full-grown" and ready to butcher? I know they don't put on weight fast like a meat bird.

Thanks!

 

[summerb123]

cockerel

agreed

 

[JaeG]

I'd go more by the wattles as Orpingtons can be tricky. The 'Lavender Orpington Thread' is still very active and full of helpful experts. If you can get a photo of any you are on the fence about they should be able to help you out. Make sure you can see the comb and wattles in the photo as one of your head shots there I'd say was a girl as the wattles haven't dropped.

 

[donrae]

Thanks everyone!

So basically I can assume that anyone that has combs and wattles, no matter how little, at this point is a cockerel? We might have more chickens in our freezer this winter than we had hoped for! Because we want our hens to lay viable eggs, we're going to keep the two nicest roosters, hence the leg banding - so we can keep track of who's being a jerk, who's the friendliest, etc. The rest of the boys are going in the freezer.

At what age should their gender be unmistakable? Wouldn't want to accidentally butcher a hen....

And at what age are Orpingtons generally "full-grown" and ready to butcher? I know they don't put on weight fast like a meat bird.

Thanks!

At this point, if there's any red to the comb or wattles, it's male. Some females may have a bitty comb starting, but it will be fleshy colored.

You're probably going to want to take the males to around 18-22 weeks for optimum butcher. However, that depends on how they act. Lots of folks just start butchering whenever the males start crowing or harassing the pullets. Some males start that pretty young. Orps are usually slower to mature, so you'll probably have longer. I wouldn't take them a whole lot longer than 22 weeks, though. At that point they're not really going to gain much weight in return for the feed they'll eat. And by that point, you'll definitely be able to tell male and female.