My favorite "Hen" Crowed this morning. Is She a He?

[Vincentsmom31]

My white plymouth rock is about 5 months old, was still peeping until about a week ago and has just started clucking. This morning she made a noise kinda like a crow, but sounded less cock-a-doodle-doo, and more AAAaaaruAAh! She's never made that sound before and now I'm worried she's a cockerel. How do I tell if she's a he? She has a bigger comb than her sister Babs but not by a whole lot and she doesn't have any long tail feathers. Would she have spurs by now? Help!

 

[Vincentsmom31]

no pointy thin feathers on her/his neck or shoulders

 

[Vincentsmom31]

my baby is a boy isn't it. what do I do? do I have to keep him away from the other hens?

 

[appps]

Yep keep him/her where she is will be fine. One rooster in the flock will not cause too many problems unless he is super randy and you only have a couple of hens. We had one rooster and three hens and except for the month his hormones hit and he first discovered mating (and was dreadfully rough) he settled in to be a great protector and gentle with the girls.

He did however get too protective and started to attack the kids and to a lesser degree me. We started holding him to train him we were in charge with some success but had to rehome due to noise complaints.

My advice though would be to make a real effort to hold and carry him now before he starts getting territorial, make sure he knows you are top chook now, don't wait till he becomes a problem first.

 

[Chickenman76]

Got any pics? There are several ways to tell if it's a roo, Saddle feathers, hackle feathers, comb and wattles for a few


http://en.engormix.com/images/e_articles/926_01.gif

 

[questions543]

yup please a picture

 

[appps]

Re the spurs our roosters were still tiny when we had to give him away at about 8 months old so don't use that when sexing

 

[Vincentsmom31]

this is my baby, I'm keeping Bunty whether or not he/she is ahem...macho.

 

[Chickenman76]

Got any close ups? Are there any really pointy thin feathers on the saddle, can't really tell, but I'm leaning towards cockerel

 

[Katie Hays]

Rainbow Sherbet ... crowed 1st time at 5 months