Play the latest round of "Is Alice a Rooster?"

[ElizabethinNY]

ACK, I swear these chickens are driving me nutty trying to figure out who is what. Here's a link to my post from when they were 5 weeks old.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=180172&p=1

At 7.5 weeks old now, all 5 of the Orps now look very roosterish, with the possible exception of Dorothy who maybe is still a hen. No one is crowing yet. I wish they'd just crow already! The roosters will be re-homed when they do. If I end up with no Orp girls, I want to re-order some before it gets too late in the season!

Here's "Alice" who is probably not Alice, is he/she?

And Dorothy, who hopefully is still a girl, but is also starting to get pretty red in the face. Sorry about the blur. She's always in motion and is the most curious of them all.

These two are my pretty-sure roosters. They're both not as nice, standoffish and don't like to be picked up. They were taking a dust bath in this photo. These two boys have curled tail feathers coming in and are by FAR the reddest in the face.

My 5 reds are just about impossible to tell who is who yet. One carries itself like a rooster, but there's no hint of red in the faces of any of them, yet. Here's Hazel, just for fun. I'm still hoping she's a she.

Does anyone know at what age Buff Orpingtons crow? Thanks.

Note to self--in future DO NOT BUY straight run chicks from Tractor Supply!

 

[ggrap]

My female BO's are 12 and 14 wks old, and they have almost no comb sticking up yet. I am betting you have boys there.

 

[farmerlor]

Hazel is a girl. The wattles on those BOs are your clue.

 

[ggrap]

Yes, about the wattles. And I agree that Hazel is a girl....not dark enough to be a RIR. Maybe a red sexlink? I haven't had NH's before.

 

[ggrap]

And BTW. My little pic of the hen and chick...that is a BO hen, and see how small her comb and wattles are for an adult? Your birds combs/wattles are almost as big!

 

[speckledhen]

I'd say that Hazel may be a New Hampshire Red. She has that coloring, anyway.

 

[ElizabethinNY]

I don't have photos of all five Orps, but there is only one that doesn't have big red wattles.

And it's growing little red wattles.

When I bought the birds at TSC, they said that they were New Hampshire Reds and Rhode Island Reds. The TSC guy said that my yellow chicks were the New Hampshires.

There are two red birds that are the color of Hazel, and three that are darker red.

This is the other lighter red bird:

One of the darker reds:

And another of the darker reds:

By the way, someone out there just let out an awful sounding almost-crow, but won't repeat it while I'm looking at them. Darn those chickens.

Do you all think that TSC would spike the "Straight Run Reds" bin with a run of Orpington roosters to cut down their costs? It seems sort of strange that all five Orps would be roosters.

 

[danielbrown]

Quote:
One thing i've learned about stores selling chicks is. Never trust the labels on the chicks or what the person says they are.

I saw the guy selling chicks at a TSC using the feet dangle method of sexing chicks on straight run red sexlinks.

The lady asked for 15 pullets and she got 8 pullets, 6 males and a cornishX.

 

[speckledhen]

And if TSC knew anything about anything, they'd know sexlinks are already sexed. Geez. The darker orangey ones are female and the lighter yellowy ones are male. That's what sexlink means, sexable by color. Good grief, what craziness. If they mixed them up, no, they wouldn't know a Buff Orp from any red sexlink male chick

 

[flytpm]

I'm guessing boys on BO.