Need help with mystery crower - Buff Orpington or Black Australorp

[swmalone]

The third one is actually a black sex link, so should be a pullet for sure. I also think she is my mystery layer. I have had my first egg yesterday but it was a super soft shelled thing and was actually two small eggs attached at the membrane. So far no eggs today, just the early morning mystery crow. I assume your Welsummer that "crows" is a hen?

 

[empireranch]

Quote:
Yes - my welsummer is a girl and has been in charge from the beginning.

 

[greenSearcher]

You keep mentioning that the eggs are soft shelled. Have you switched them to laying feed or put out oystershell? If not, it is time to do so. It will help w/ the soft eggs shell.

 

[swmalone]

I had been giving them oyster shell for about a week and just switched them to layer feed. I have only had the one egg so far and it was the soft shelled, deformed one. I haven't received any eggs today. I saw the black sex lex in the nest box, but nothing.

 

[swmalone]

So today I was all prepared to peak in the coop and see who it was crowing and of course when I opened up the coop this morning they all just trot down into the run without a peep. Still no definitive answer. I have noticed that the australorp is becoming more aggressive towards the other two and just a week or two ago the australorp would run and hide from everything. I will keep posted on developments.

 

[nolasafari]

I have the twin of you Buff in my garage in a cage. I heard crowing yesterday morning, so I grabbed him and caged him in my laundry room to verify, he crowed 7 times this morning before I went to work. My Buff pullet looks like the one shown in the picture with very little comb.

Jim

 

[ChickenLove123]

I am new to all of this too, and I appreciate your "wait and see" approach. It seems from what I've heard, within a couple weeks the crower will start crowing all day and it'll be clear who the culprit is. Then the next trick will be to see if the crower is also laying eggs. I liked the idea of the PP who mentioned separating a bird by putting it in a pet carrier in the laundry room (that's where it was, right?). If you make it cozy enough, maybe you'd even get an egg if she's a layer.

And golly, the Buff looks totally girlish to me.

I hope they are all girls and will stop making noise.

 

[TheJuan-n-Only]

love me a good game of hide/crow and go seek! good luck!

 

[swmalone]

I am hoping for all girls too. We only have three and as I mentioned before they are pets. The one with the most rooish features to me seems to be the australorp, and it is so hard to get good pictures because of the black color and the fact that it won't pose like the other two.

I was really hoping to hear the crowing again today so I could figure out which it is. If it decided to only crow once a week and only a couple times right in the morning I may try to keep it even if it is a rooster.

I think everyone loves a good mystery. I am following some other threads trying to figure out if a bird is a pullet or cockerel and my thread seems to have a lot more answers on both sides as opposed to the other threads where usually the majority of posters are all in agreement. I just have some special birds.

 

[TheJuan-n-Only]

Quote:
I think if you have the possibility of separating them for 1 or 2 days it would be easy to tell. leave the sexlink and BA or BO in the coop and the other (BA or BO) in a cage in a different area....crow will have to come from one cage or the other...

well....unless the roo is a ventriloquist and can "throw" his voice...then you SOL! hehehehe