My cockerel's adult instinct won't kick in.

[Buck Creek Chickens]

momma's chickens :

Well now that it is not midnight and my eyes aren't watering from too much bonfire smoke, yes, your "handsome" boy is a pretty girl.

Thanks Buck Creek for your reply, I know for sure ours is a boy and I will keep waiting to see what happens as he is beautiful, IMO.

some boys take time, just wait till spring. with some roo's its like a switch one day 'a girl

' the next day he's chashin' them all over​

 

[RAREROO]

Sorry Joy, but your "roo" is most definitely a hen. It's not too uncommon for some hens to have longer curver feathers, especially at a young age, but it looks nothing like a roo. It's a hen for sure.

However, in the case that it was a roo, then I would be having the exact same problem except roo is a Splash laced Red Wyandotte and he as been with hens since I got him about maybe 4 months ago and I have seen no mounting or crowing from him, he is young but I have roos younger than he is that are already trying to breed. This is worring me because I was planning to use him with my SLW hens to make blue laced sexlinks but that's not gonna happen if he doesnt breed them. He's still got a little time though, the SLW hens haven't started laying yet, but if he doesn't start breeding, they will all be going.

Here is a pic of him so you can see that he is a roo. With the older Barred Rock hens that he has been with since I've had him.

Oh and "project" to most of us means like project of creating a new color (or at least new to that breed), most of the time it will require an outcross to get the color and the breed back to the correct type of the desired breed and in the meantime, while you are working on type, but don't quite have it up to what it should be yet, you call it a project.

 

[D'Angelo N Va.]

hmmmmm if you sent the right picture and I am guessing you did....that is a HEN. she isn't going to crow.

 

[Heathercp]

I have to agree. She looks just like my Australorp hens.

 

[Whisper]

The pointy feathers along the sides, right in front of the tail (the saddle area) are the real giveaways for cockerels. I have four bantam roosters, all of them born last October, and they're just now coming into lovely feather with those pointed saddle feathers along their sides, right before their "butts". Harder to tell on my frizzled cochin, but all of the others . . . pointed and lovely. And they're all starting to crow now, too.

If the saddle feathers are still rounded at 8 months, it's a pullet, methinks. Neck feathers can be pointed in both sexes.

 

[jeslewmazer]

I also believe you have a hen. Some hens can look kind of rooish. I think she fooled you and the previous owner. She's got jokes.

 

[australorp_breeder]

Alright everyone, here's a picture I took the other day of the chicken. The first picture I showed you was a picture the owner took before I got the chicken. I exaggerated when I edited the colors so you guys could see the feathers more clearly:

Hypothetically speaking, if he is a 'she', I haven't received any eggs, and the month and a half I've had the Australorp by now I should've at least got one. If this is a female, she's the first one I've ever seen that looks like a male. My other Australorps all look female.

 

[momma's chickens]

I would still say definitley hen, sorry!

 

[msgenie516]

Hi,

I am not an expert but "he" looks like a "she" to me. I also have a hen (I know she's a hen, had her for two years and she lays) that looks like a roo, so it gets confusing. As far as laying age is concerned, I have had one pullet that only started laying when she became 10 months old, so you never know. Good luck!

Genie

 

[australorp_breeder]

Thank you, I just still think it's weird I haven't received an egg from the now 'her', lol. My other Australorps started laying when they reached 7-8 months.