My 15week old Austrolorp X chicks - worried I have a Roo

[IamSamSam]

I will try and get a better picture of both however no spurs are evident and one is redder than the other but both have smallish combs.... however i am still a newbie to this (had chooks as a kid but ma did the work and now 20 yrs on I have 4 layers and just brought these girls - i hope) The one in frount has a white black striped flight feather on her other side. The one on the back is dark faced and has grey outlines on its chest - and the tail looks wrong ? could it be a roo??

 

[donrae]

I'm not seeing anything that says roo yet, but better pics would help. Keep in mind your girls are reaching the early point of maturity their combs are going to grow larger and redder as they prepare to lay eggs. One will probably mature first, but the other will soon catch up. A roo is usually evident by now, starting hackle or saddle feathers, or crowing attempts, esp if no other roosters are around.

 

[Maggie C]

I have Australorps too - they are my favorites and I agree with donrae - nothing to indicate a roo. There would have been definite signs by now. One of my lorps has an "off" looking tail too and up until she started laying I kept thinking she was a he.
But, no spurs and no crowing.

 

[IamSamSam]

A few more pics..............


not the best pic but you can see the markings on her chest





Thanks for your posts ! I appreciate the feed back....

 

[PekinBantam]

Nothing screams roo yet but one seems to have bigger waddles and a redder face, he/she also has a more upright posture than the other. If I'd have to guess I'd say you have one hen and one roo, the hen is the one on the left on the first picture and the roo is the one on the right. but I'm not 100% sure. could you get a picture including the tail of the chicken on the right of picture #3?

 

[IamSamSam]

the one your refering to is the one in the back ground in my original post and one on the right in the first of three pics in my last post. thats the one i thought might be roo.

 

[PekinBantam]

Yeah.

 

[IamSamSam]

Though these are crosses and the father was a pure lorp cross with something and the mother was lorp x with another cross breed - I have to admit I cant remember what breed even though I was told.

Yet the two I have look a lot like Lorps. When do they start to show spurs??

 

[BlazeJester]

Both are pullets - one will mature faster than the other and get her big comb & wattles earlier... but she may not lay first! My aussies laid around 25 weeks, but they were chicks over winter. Yours may start in the next month or two

ETA: If you could get a picture of the "spurs" you are talking about - my two very obvious araucana roos are growing spurs now, around 18 weeks. The little girl's is still a bump.

 

[donrae]

Those are both pullets. They're just growing up.