First of all, Merry Christmas, to all!
Question, for the breed and gender experts.
On a nearly daily basis, I get three chickens that come-a-visiting, ostensibly, to chow down on the good feed that my chickens get, supplemented to their free range diet, of whatever feed grows naturally, on my little farm-ette.
I've tried running them off. I've tried to capture them, to no avail, and they just keep coming back. Yesterday, they were here before the sun was up. Today, they waited until just after I let my birds out for the day.
The three would be best described thusly. 2, are copper red colored. Like a bright, shiny copper penny, is the best my color blind eyes can see them as. These two appear to be nearly identical twins. Beautiful, prominent straight combs, LONG wattles, two long, curved, tail feathers, and have not yet begun to sprout spurs. EVERYTHING about them, screams "Rooster". With a couple of exceptions. They both have big, fluffy rumps, like a hen, and my roosters are not only not acting like these are "competition", all 3 of my roos, have at one time or another, tried to "mount" one, or the other. Both of these visitors act like hens, but look like roos. Capons, maybe? If so, why do none of the neighbors want to lay claim to them? I'd think, that if someone were to go to the bother of caponizing them, that they'd want to keep them in their flock. They might be a little skittish, but they both seem very docile and sweet.
The third visitor, is surely a hen. She is the most shy of the bunch. I can't seem to ever get a photo of her. She looks like a lighter colored version, of my Spanish Marraduna Basque hens, only lighter in color. She's very light beige, where mine are more of a dark beige, nearly tan, in color.
From looking at these photos, can anyone give me an idea, of what kind of "visitors" do I have, coming around here? Thoughts on gender? The one that I suspect is Marraduna Basque, is much lighter, than seen in the photo.
I've heard of roosters mounting other roosters as a dominance thing tho I've never actually seen it. 
Yes, rooster tails and wattles but their stances are so hen-like. I have a young Cochin bird that acts like a pullet and wasn't in all the dominance play when I put them all together in their new pen. It has a rather large comb and wattle for an hen but a low and rounded tail like a hen. But, even more puzzling, it hase pointed feathers on its tail and hackles?Heck, I'm barely seeing any eggs, from my own hens. No, definitely no eggs anywhere around, that they had access to. I still think the Reds are roosters, likely New Hampshires. But, it does still seem strange, that they are so friendly, not only with each other, but that they don't seem to be thought of as a "threat" to my roosters. They are either very young, or capons. Their spurs are almost non-existent. Though I did get these photos, about an hour ago, and the two (assumed to be) males, have very differently colored shanks. One very yellow, like a pullet, the other more beige/gray, like an older chicken. The one I believe to be a Marraduna Basque, is seen a bit better here, also.
I should add, that if they ARE capons, they must have had the genetics for MAGNIFICENT combs and wattles, because they are beautiful, now. And, considering that caponizing will cause them to shrink, greatly, they would have to have had some HUGE combs/wattles, before the deed were done.
Hi Michiele. I haven't been on for a while. Welcome to Okie style BYC.I had four broodie hens and haven't had a problem yet. I had two born yesterday, so I'm going to candle the eggs to see if they're good. My c/w ctoss hatched 10 out of 12, the other two were yolkers.So for the last week I've had a few chicks born everyday and mama's are doing good.
