Male or female?

[Frosty]

This is the 2012 midnight black shoulder I bought with the adult pair... I am not sure exactly how old it is, just that it was this years hatch. My 4 year old dark pied black shoulder is beside it, so that could give some size comparison. There is no blue or green on the neck at all yet. I am leaning towards thinking female, what do you think?

 

[frenchblackcopper]

Your white colored bird with black across it's back is a bs hen,,if that bird is 4 years old the tail would be much,much longer if a male even if the train was shed last fall already,as my adult males already have 2' and some already has 3' ft train grown back.

 

[Frosty]

I can verify that he's 4, I have had him since Oct 2008 (so he'll be 5 this coming breeding season). The midnight BS I got is supposed to be 5 (and is the father of the light one in the pic), his train is about the same length as my 4 year old. Perhaps daylight length has to do with how long they are now? Our days are 8 hours 21 min now. If daylight length has an effect, that could leave their trains in better shape once breeding season starts?

 

[Frosty]

Here are the parents, the chick is darker than it's mother... at least the seller said the chick belongs to these two.


Here is a shot of the father that shows how long his train is (or how short it is

) My original guy is comparable in length.

 

[MinxFox]

Wow my peacock's train is like three times as long right now... Anyways I would say that it is a peahen. At that size if it was a peacock it would already be showing color.

 

[zazouse]

I love the color of the dark one but i am with Minxfox, my male just turned 2 and he has a 3foot train already .

Will your male grow a longer train or is it always this short?

 

[Frosty]

I love the color of the dark one but i am with Minxfox, my male just turned 2 and he has a 3foot train already .

Will your male grow a longer train or is it always this short?

Like I mentioned earlier, the days are really short here right now, and I'm thinking that puts mine behind yours. I know as far as plants go, we are at least 2 or 3 weeks behind my mother in PA for lilacs blooming, and the turkeys are about a month behind for laying eggs (if they started laying when yours do, I would have frozen eggs). As a 2 year old, my dark pied had no train at all (the same with their SP son). As a three year old, he had a pretty nice train, but I messed up his train for last summer. I had him in with the layers and had the lights going. When I started getting over run with eggs, I cut the lights back, and his beautiful train (which was longer than it is now - maybe because of the lights?) mostly dropped out. I posted about it at the time, and deerman agreed that I pretty much messed up the breeding season with the dark pied. I think because of that, my hen didn't start laying until mid July. Now there are a few chickens in with them, but all roosters and no lights. I'll have to post more pics as the trains get longer... breeding season is still about 5 months away.

 

[WestKnollAmy]

I wonder if tail length does have to do with having a shorter warm season than we do down here. The peas I have been given live outside only, only a covered enclosure, no sides are enclosed (my poor dears!) but they have very long trains. We have warmer temps longer than you do and still some greenery for them to nibble on.

Neat to see the difference!

Oh! And I guessed girl when I read your post so I am glad everyone said the same. Looks like I am learning a little bit! Yay!

And your birds are gorgeous!

 

[casportpony]

I guess mine got their trains in the short train department, 'cause my coming 4 year old boys look like Frosty's boy.

 

[Frosty]

Right now, we have 8 hours 21 min of daylight. By comparison, Chicago, IL has 9 hours 8 min, we will be at that point around Jan 24th. Dallas, TX has 10 hours. We should reach that point around Feb 11th. I'll try to remember to get some pics around those days to test my theory.

Don't worry casportpony, I'm sure our boys will catch up and the trains will be gorgeous because less time for them to get beat up