Only a little panicked:(

[stripey22]

If somebody could help us out a bit we would be most appreciative. We bought 10 "guaranteed" pullets at Easter time. Now at about 16 weeks here are what we thought were a RIR hen and a Australorp hen???
What do you think? They both crow. The Australorp crows like a pro but the RIR sounds horrible, like it wants to be a roo but can't quite do it. Also, neither of them has any sign of spurs.

Thank you for any thoughts.

 

[KyBlue]

Definitely roos! They're still too young to have very much spur development.

 

[spikennipper]

Did the crowing not give it away?

they are both roos...

 

[ve]

Both boys and the Australorp is actualy Silver Laced Wyandotte

 

[chicmom]

Yes indeed......roosters......

 

[Rosecomb-Ryan]

Yep 2 roos! A RIR and a Silver Penciled Wyandotte..

 

[stripey22]

Thanks everyone! We ended up with 4 roos. We just had a nice gentleman come and take them to raise and we are now looking for a few girls to fill the gaps left behind. We sure do love this forum. Thanks again.

 

[RAREROO]

Quote:
Thats what I said, That is some serious denial if the crowing wasnt a dead giveaway that they were roos. And they are a Production Red and a Silver Laced Wyandotte by the way.

 

[stripey22]

We are obviously new at the chicken thing. We only know what we were told by the people that sold us the chickens. They only started crowing in the last 2 weeks and it was pretty lame crowing at that. Then last night and today the black one went crazy and found his groove. I only came on here to ask because there are a large number of sources on the internet that say hens sometimes try to crow and that they are feeble at best at crowing. That's what we had until this week, feeble crowing. So I guess if our hoping for the "hens sometimes crow" info to be true so as not to break my 6 year old daughters heart is denial then yep it was denial.
I don't measure up to some of you and your expertise.
Thanks again.

 

[RAREROO]

Quote:
I'm sorry, I didnt mean any offence in what I said, of course we all started out as newbies and you will learn as you go too. You are right though, that in some very rare cases, hens may crow, but like I said, it is very rare. However, to more experienced eyes, your birds are screaming roo. So some things for you to look for in the future are the large combs at that age, even full grown mature hens that are a couple years old hardly get combs that big. Another thing is the pointed saddle feathers ( at the base of the tail) and the neck feathers. those pointed feathers are a dead give away that you have a roo. So thats something to look for in the future. And be carefull with anyone selling you " Guaranteed " pullets as well unless they are sexlinks.

And again I am sorry if I offended you with what I said, its just that we see a lot of people on here that are still holding on to false hope, but I guess us more experienced eyes have to remember that there are new people who havent learned any better yet. And you made the right choice joining BYC to ask, this site is a MUST for anyone who cares anything about poultry and you will find a wealth of knowledge to any other questions you have in the future.