We currently have 16 chickens and are at various stages of IDing them. 4 of them hatched March 3rd and we know that they are Black Sex Linked pullets. The rest came from my daughters school...the eggs were brown and blueish green. I know that the blueish green ones were probably "Easter Eggers" or is this just a term to mean "mutt chickens?" The man who bought them said they were Araucana's, but I'm not sure he knew what he was talking about, because I read they don't have tails...and all but one of ours have tails. So, 11 of them hatched around March 29th and of those, we have identified two as definite roosters because they are crowing...one of them was playing hard to get when I was taking photos, but here is one of them, but we don't know what breed he is:
1 hatched maybe a week later (we were told it hatched around the same time as the others...this one came from the original guy who bought them, but it did not hatch with the ones at the school). It is MUCH smaller than the others, but looks very rooster-ish, with the tail feathers and everything, but no crowing or other rooster behavior:
This is one that all along has had larger legs and combs/wattles, but has shown no rooster qualities until today. It has started to try to mate, but hasn't had any luck...just runs after the other rooster when he tries to mate or even tries to get on top of him when he is mating. Do pullets ever try to mate? (I know my female dogs do this a lot.)
Then there are what I think to be RIR pullets, but I'd love some feedback. The first couple are suspected roos, but show absolutely NO SIGNS (other than size and possibly the tail feathers).
Lastly, there are two smaller white pullets (well, I'm pretty confident that they are pullets). One has a no tail and some beige mixed in with her white. This is her:
This is the other one...she is mostly white and has a yellow beak and possibly some tufts around her face:
Any help you can provide with regard to determining breeds or gender is greatly appreciated. And while it probably belongs on a different section of this forum, I'm open to suggestions of what to do with all of my roosters? And whether I even should keep one? I'm told by a neighbor that his hens started laying better once the rooster was gone. And, I know that I could butcher them (and even have someone to do so for me) but think I would rather just find them new homes...or is that silly? Thanks so much!
Tracey in Woodsboro, MD
1 hatched maybe a week later (we were told it hatched around the same time as the others...this one came from the original guy who bought them, but it did not hatch with the ones at the school). It is MUCH smaller than the others, but looks very rooster-ish, with the tail feathers and everything, but no crowing or other rooster behavior:
This is one that all along has had larger legs and combs/wattles, but has shown no rooster qualities until today. It has started to try to mate, but hasn't had any luck...just runs after the other rooster when he tries to mate or even tries to get on top of him when he is mating. Do pullets ever try to mate? (I know my female dogs do this a lot.)
Then there are what I think to be RIR pullets, but I'd love some feedback. The first couple are suspected roos, but show absolutely NO SIGNS (other than size and possibly the tail feathers).
Lastly, there are two smaller white pullets (well, I'm pretty confident that they are pullets). One has a no tail and some beige mixed in with her white. This is her:
This is the other one...she is mostly white and has a yellow beak and possibly some tufts around her face:
Any help you can provide with regard to determining breeds or gender is greatly appreciated. And while it probably belongs on a different section of this forum, I'm open to suggestions of what to do with all of my roosters? And whether I even should keep one? I'm told by a neighbor that his hens started laying better once the rooster was gone. And, I know that I could butcher them (and even have someone to do so for me) but think I would rather just find them new homes...or is that silly? Thanks so much!
Tracey in Woodsboro, MD
