Please help with appenzeller chickens

[Dknuds]

I think they are male but I’m not sure. please help

 

[MamaPoult]

I dont have any experience so I probably cant say, but what gorgeous birds you have

 

[NatJ]

How old are they?

 

[Dknuds]

Thank you ! There my first experience with chickens .. but I’m at a loss as how to figure them out

 

[Dknuds]

6 months old approximately

 

[NatJ]

6 months old approximately

They are females.

At 6 months old, males would be crowing. The red wattles that dangle under the chin would be much larger on males. And males would have long, skinny feathers in their hackles (base of the neck) and saddle (growing from their back and hanging down to both sides.)

The crest (feathers that stick up on top of the head) also tends to be a different shape in males than females. I can't easily describe it, but yours look like "female" shaped crests.

https://www.feathersite.com/Poultry/CGA/Spitz/BRKSpitzhauben.html
I recommend the photos on this page ^ for examples of male and female Spitzhaubens. The photos are generally labeled. Rooster or roo is adult male, hen is adult female, cockerel is young male, pullet is young female.

 

[Dknuds]

Thank you for your help there extremely loud birds and that’s kind of throwing me off. I’m not sure what to do. do you think all of them are pullets? I have not gotten any eggs yet. I’m not sure if it’s due to the season
( winter in northern New Jersey )

 

[Dknuds]

I see that 2 of my birds have wattles but they’re small. The one doesn’t have them at all but all 3 are crowing

 

[NatJ]

Thank you for your help there extremely loud birds and that’s kind of throwing me off. I’m not sure what to do. do you think all of them are pullets? I have not gotten any eggs yet. I’m not sure if it’s due to the season
( winter in northern New Jersey )

They sure look like pullets to me. I would expect eggs when the days get longer in the spring.

I see that 2 of my birds have wattles but they’re small. The one doesn’t have them at all but all 3 are crowing

Wait, they are crowing?

If they are actually crowing, then they are probably males, no matter what they look like. (Crowing pullets do exist, but they are fairly rare. Having three of them at once would be quite surprising.)

When roosters crow, they usually make a specific motion with their neck, as well as making the sound. This video has some examples:

But pullets can be very loud sometimes too, especially with the "egg song" (they do it sometimes when they have not laid an egg too.)

^ Do they sound like this? This is common with pullets, especially when they are getting close to laying age.

 

[Dknuds]

Well this literally just happened