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Oh regarding sexing...Behavioral cues:
My roos are much more alert and give me the sideways looking stinkeye more often that not. Also they like the fake jousting each other. So they drop their shoulders and toss their neck feathers forward to look bigger for each other. If you see 2 birds flying at each other feet first....those are Roos.
 
Welcome to BYC! Glad to have you! I see many people have posted (all of which know much more than me LOL) but I will still put in my 2 cents!

First question- How on earth do you tell if a hen may be a rooster?!?
  • The most obvious would be if it crows, it's a cockerel. If it lays an egg, it's a pullet.
  • First, a professional vent sexer can sex 1-day old chicks. Notice I said professional. This isn't something safe for an untrained chicken keep to attempt. This method only has about a 90-95% accuracy. But it's better than straight run!
  • Some chickens are what we call sex-linked. This means that there are key features (color, pattern, feathers, etc.) that determine the gender when the chicks are born.
  • Now if you have an older breed, you can try to tell the gender, but it is harder. Some things that determine if it is a rooster are: Long hackle feathers. They are the feathers around the neck. They are usually skinny and shiny. Same goes with the saddle feathers. Those are around the tail. A rooster will also have those long, curving iridescent tail feathers. Roosters are generally larger than hens and more aggressive.
  • If you want your chicken sexed, post a photo on a thread, and someone will try to help.
Second- How do you get them to lay eggs? We have been feeding them since May and nothing! They were a couple months old when we bought them.

You should feed them chick starter feed until they are laying. Then you can switch to layer pellets. Some pullets take longer than others. It could be anywhere from 24 weeks to 32 weeks or longer until a pullet lays! I wouldn't worry. Just be patient.

Third- What kind of scraps can they eat? Is any food, fruit or veggies- harmful? If they eat their egg shells will they eat their own eggs?

Chickens can eat pretty much anything! As for eggs, I wouldn't let them eat their eggshells because that can lead to egg eating which isn't good. For calcium, you can break the shells and give it to them. Here is a list of foods that chickens can't eat:

  • Nothing avocado. No pits, skin or flesh.
  • No white potatoes. Cooked and raw are both bad. No skins either.
  • No tomato or eggplant leaves. (Tomato the fruit is ok)
  • No apple seeds
  • No rhubarb
  • No raw dried beans
  • No onions
  • No chocolate
  • No caffeine
  • Nothing moldy
  • No teabags
  • No alcohol
  • Nothing overly sweet or salty
  • Nothing fried
  • Nothing sprayed with pesticides, herbicides, or other chemicals
  • Citrus, spinach, asparagus, iceberg lettuce, white rice, pasta, bread, and dairy products are ok in small amounts every now and then
Fourth- How cold is too cold?

Chickens are pretty good at staying warm. However, single digits or negatives it much too cold.

Fifth-What animals will eat them?

Anything carnivorous will try and eat them. Sorry, chickens, you are safe from nothing! LOL!


I hope this helped!

-Chatty :)
 
Others have covered your questions pretty well. I'll just say Welcome by BYC!

One thing to keep in mind is that hens normally reduce laying as the light hours go down. Some people use artificial light to keep them laying more in the winter. They'll pick back up in the spring.
 

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