Olive Egger with no apparent tail - what breed? Also, male or female?

[sayga]

Because this is always a fun game, what is my chicken: male or female? He is 8 weeks old. His comb is not as red as our 2 "definitely roosters" but redder and more developed than some of our "definitely females." But then again, he is the only one of his type so that all might be meaningless. I think it's a male and we have been calling him Oliver. Do you think it's an Oliver or an Olivia?

S/he hatched from an olive-colored egg and is supposed to be an olive-egger. That's all I know about its origins. I am intrigued by his lack of tail feathers. I have picked him up and dug around his bum a bit and can't feel any tail feathers hiding under there. I know an Araucana+dark brown layer will result in an olive egger, but the egg he hatched from was olive color. I can't believe a 3rd generation OE would still have a rump like an Araucana...could it? Anyway, what's your vote? Will s/he grow a tail, or not?

He is very shy and keeps away from people, but comes when he is called...just not TOO close! He is fast, and seems to be towards the bottom of the pecking order, or just invisible to it since he stays out of the way a lot. He's a good chicken though. I hope it's a girl so we don't have to eat her. We can't have roosters in our city.











I'll update later in the summer when I know for sure its sex, and post more photos so we can see the tail development (if any).

 

[Studio2770]

This is tough. The feathers tell me girl while the comb at the age tells me boy. Can't help with breed.

 

[luvfluffyfeet]

I think roo

 

[BantamLover21]

Rooster.

 

[donrae]

At 8 weeks there's no doubt that's a cockerel. Big red comb (not as big as a straight combed bird, but that's an impressive pea comb for the age) plus the reddish leakage on the wings are boy signs.

I'm not as familiar with the rumpless gene, but my understanding is it's recessive, so it can hide and pop up down the line. We've seen rumpless birds of different breeds on this board over the years, breeds you'd never expect to carry the gene. I guess, breed enough birds and weird things pop up!

Did you feel a tail bone at all? That's the key to true rumplessness, lack of a tail bone.

 

[sayga]

Lack of a tailbone! Ah I didn't know that. My sister is a vet. I'll have her feel him up when she comes to get her cream leg bar from me. CREAM LEG BAR! Blue eggs! They are new; I bought them from Craigslist this evening. They are in quarantine for now, but I got 2 for me and 1 for my sister so we can each add them to our flock. We are very excited by them!

There's 2 of 3 anyway.

Yeah, I'm excited about them. And chicken math got me again. Even though. when ignoring the roosters, we have enough chickens for our egg needs, I still got 2 more chicks to replace the 4 roosters we will get rid of. Oh chickens. What have you done to me?!