New to this game, just a couple of questions, can you help?

[Henner67]

Hi,
we acquired two hens four weeks ago, well friends and family thought it would be funny to put them in our garden when we came back from honeymoon, along with both baths in the house full of goldfish and every draw in the house filled with tinsel and rice...but that's another story...
We grew attached to Dol and Phin but are now a little concerned that Dol may be a boy ? I've read may threads and it seems its very hard to tell the sex of birds and the only sure way is if it lays and egg or wakes you up in the morning !!
I'll attach a photo of the bird in question any suggestions will be appreciated.
The hens ( hopefully they are both hens ) are now 19 weeks old assuming they were 14 weeks when we got them. We have placed a coop on freshly built footing so that no predators can get them and we let them have the roam of the garden from when we let them out first thing but really struggle to get them back in there at night or dusk. They walk up and down the patio doors at dusk desperate to get indoors.
How can we encourage them to go into their coop of their own accord ? We have kept them in their run for 6 nights in a hope this '


helped but it didn't. The coop has a run underneath the sleeping quarters and if they are in the run they take themselves upstairs to bed but wont go into the coop themselves.
They also wont even look at waste veggies or peelings, brocolli or cabbage? Are they simply too young to be eating this ?
Right enough question...tell me please is Dol a cock ????
Any suggestions would be great.

 

[BantamFan4Life]

You have a Cuckoo Marans hen and a Cream Legbar roo.

 

[fuzziecreatures]

Dol is not a cockerel as far as I can tell. They might just not like the veggies. They are plenty old enough for them.

 

[Henner67]

Thanks Happy Houdan, I see you are a founder of a farm so should know what your talking about. Are you sure, how can you tell ? I was told these were cross breads so for you to say what breads they are is impressive, I guess this bread has the most dominant feature out of the two parent birds.
If your sure Dol in a cockerel should we get rid of her...op's , him ? We have no eggs from the other but I guess shes a little young. Will Dol now try and mate with Phin ? Will our eggs from her be fertilized ? We're only keeping them for eggs so should we cook Dol or swap her, sorry him !!

 

[Henner67]

thanks fuzzie, I guess you should know as you have so many chickens your self but as I thought I have had two replies and both different opinions !

 

[gryeyes]

What would be your reason for not keeping a rooster? You cannot tell the difference between fertilized and not fertile eggs by taste, nor is there any difference in nutrition. Gather the eggs and you won't get chicks.

I think Del is a cockerel, too. He might enjoy having a second lady friend (to replace the eggs he would have laid had he been a hen).

 

[Kelsie2290]

Take some side pictures of Dol so we can see her side and back, but from that picture she may be just a girl getting ready to lay.
With the veggies, it sometimes takes chickens awhile to get used to eating strange food. Older birds tend to be more adventurous with what they will eat also. It will also depend on how hungry they are and how much other stuff they have to pick from etc. Since yours get to roam around the yard and garden they are probably finding all kinds of good stuff on their own, and your offerings aren't appealing right how. When winter hits they will probably become less fussy.
Did you just put up the coop for them, and they had been sleeping in the house? (With goldfish in the bathroom, I can see chickens in the kitchen.) If the coop it new to them, it may take them quite awhile to decide to see it as home. You are feeding and watering them in the coop? If they put themselves too bed if they are locked in the run, I would just keep putting them back in the run and lock them in in the evening until they go on their own.

 

[Henner67]

ok...thanks for the replies so far, still 50/50 as to whether she's a he or he's a she !
They have been in the coop for about 3 weeks now. Their food and water are kept inside the run and they happily go in at their own will throughout the day. Its just at dusk they seem to get desperate to come indoors, I think this must be where they feel safest.We did let them in the kitchen a few days in the first week and they settled on the back of a chair then we carried them to the coop. The other day we stuck to our guns and didn't heard them into the coop, we went out a while later and found they had managed to get on the kitchen roof ! They spent the night up there.
I didn't know you could eat fertlised eggs ? If she is a he will he not wear one hen out if we kept him ?

As asked for a couple of different posses.....








thanks for your help.

 

[Kelsie2290]

Are you sure about the age on these guys? I'm still seeing a female legbar or X, but it looks older than 19 weeks? Does that cuckoo colored one also have a tuft of feathers on its head?
It doesn't really matter if eating eggs are fertilized, you can't tell without looking really really close at the tiny white spot that all eggs have, in the fertilized ones it is shaped more like a bullseye. Ya, you will need more than one hen if you have a rooster, most people suggest around ten hens, but some roosters are ok with less.

 

[CowGrrrl]

Both are hens, CL roosters don't get crests. And not trying to be mean, but being the founder of a farm doesn't mean you know what your talkin about. Just sayin'