Non-Dominant Rooster Questions...

[Juise]

Our second batch of chickens are approaching

20 weeks. One out of 6 has started laying so far, and one is very obviously a spur-growin' loud crowin' hen mountin' rooster, he's a mutt.

2 of them are leghorns, and while all 6 are around the same age, (within a few weeks anyway,) one developed bright red comb and wattles much earlier than the other. Even if you compare the slightly smaller one now to what the larger one looked like 3 weeks ago, it doesn't compare.

We have been wondering whether that one would turn out to be a roo, but even now I still can't tell for sure! Aside from having the bigger, brighter comb and wattles, though, it looks like a hen. It has no sign of saddle feathers or spurs, it has never crowed, never mounted anyone, and I have seen the rooster mount it.

What I am wondering is, does any of that actually mean anything? I have never had 2 roosters before, but I am guessing that, like other animals, mounting can simply be a show of dominance, and doesn't necessarily mean the mountee is a hen.

How about the saddle feathers, spurs, crow, and lack of mounting hens, though? Can a non-dominant rooster simply not develop these attributes because there is already a dominant rooster? The saddle feathers and spur nubs on the rooster are super obvious, and have been for quite some time.

Thoughts? Thanks!

 

[sourland]

Sounds as if you have a leghorn hen that is maturing faster than your others.

 

[Juise]

Just took a few pics that might help. As you can see, the tail is upright, but I don't know what age it starts drooping in a rooster. The other rooster's tail does, but they aren't the same breed.



This picture is a bit blurry, I don't have auto focus and those chickens do not stay still! lol I am putting it up anyway, though, because in this one you can best see the little flop to the comb. Are leghorn roosters' combs always completely upright?



One more. The isa brown behind it is a year older than it, boy are those leghorns big!

 

[sourland]

Absolutely a hen. If she is not laying already, she will soon start. The isa brown? won't be far behind her in egg laying.

 

[Juise]

Oh, thanks so much! Sorry didn't see your first reply before posting the pictures. The isa brown next to the leghorn is almost a year and a half old and has been laying for a year.

I just put that in because I just can't believe how big the still-maturing leghorn is in comparison to our mature hens! Can't wait to be getting more eggs, we don't have any white egg layers, so I know neither leghorns have started laying yet, heh.

We only got the two leghorns, and we got them because our 4 y/o daughter really wanted white eggs, so it would be a bummer if one was a roo. She's only ever had eggs from our chickens, which are brown and cream, but the eggs and pictures you see everywhere else are almost always white, so she thinks white eggs are super special and amazing.