Please tell me this is not a rooster!

[Pyxis]

Ok, I'm not 100% about all of it. Maybe they do just develop the characteristics of the other gender, but being fertile or nor does not mean they aren't male. Human men that are infertile are still men biologically.

I love your avatar btw.

As Kusanar said, a male that is infertile is a male biologically. However, a hen that develops male secondary sex characteristics is still biologically female. She still has an ovary, not testes, and it's just a hormone imbalance that causes her to develop some male traits.

Like a female human who develops a testosterone imbalance and starts growing facial hair. She's still female.

 

[Denisea3465]

Wow, this was an interesting read. Thank you everyone for your input. I had actually been reading about "changing sex" because the guy insisted he was a she, and the fact that there are no spurs and he doesn't crow.

Every time I look at him the past few weeks, we called him "not-a-rooster" because we were so confused and the guy insisted he was a she. But after posting that picture yesterday I looked at it and thought how can he not be... Today I went out to take some better pictures and yep, I definitely see all the signs I was, I suppose, trying to ignore.

Any reason why he isn't crowing yet? And no spurs? Dare I hope to be so lucky to have a quiet rooster?

 

[Denisea3465]

I typed quite a lot but it was lost. Basically though, I suppose we will do nothing until he starts to crow, and see what happens. We live in Sweden, in a village that most call "the countryside", but we do have neighbors and unfortunately one is an apartment house with several families, so lots of people to complain if he starts making noise. As I mentioned before, it is so hard to find homes for roosters because not many are allowed to have them, but everyone seems to want hens.

Right now, we are talking about calling him "Lola", clipping his tail feathers and telling people he has a gender identity issue

 

[junebuggena]

Wow, this was an interesting read. Thank you everyone for your input. I had actually been reading about "changing sex" because the guy insisted he was a she, and the fact that there are no spurs and he doesn't crow.

Every time I look at him the past few weeks, we called him "not-a-rooster" because we were so confused and the guy insisted he was a she. But after posting that picture yesterday I looked at it and thought how can he not be... Today I went out to take some better pictures and yep, I definitely see all the signs I was, I suppose, trying to ignore.

Any reason why he isn't crowing yet? And no spurs? Dare I hope to be so lucky to have a quiet rooster?

Enjoy his non crowing while it lasts. He will eventually crow. It's just a matter of time. He's still pretty young, and may be a bit lacking in confidence. Welsummers are very easy to sex reliably, once they are feathered in, since males look so much different from females.

 

[Denisea3465]

Enjoy his non crowing while it lasts. He will eventually crow. It's just a matter of time. He's still pretty young, and may be a bit lacking in confidence. Welsummers are very easy to sex reliably, once they are feathered in, since males look so much different from females.

It was unfortunately a poor picture but he is the one in the middle in my first post. Is there any way to see from that photo that he is a he? Because I did read about the chicks being easy to spot, and the guy we got them from seemed so confident...

 

[Peep_Show]

Did you get these birds as chicks? A friend of mine got female Welsummer chicks from the feed store and -- sure enough -- one of those cute little solid-eyeliner fem chicks has now sired a batch of eggs due to hatch in my incubator next Wednesday. Tallulah is now Tally. (My friend wanted to get rid of him, but he's earning his keep providing purebred fertile eggs to hatchers.)

So it is possible the guy selling them pegged them all as female. Apparently color-sexing this breed isn't 100%.

 

[Denisea3465]

Did you get these birds as chicks? A friend of mine got female Welsummer chicks from the feed store and -- sure enough -- one of those cute little solid-eyeliner fem chicks has now sired a batch of eggs due to hatch in my incubator next Wednesday. Tallulah is now Tally. (My friend wanted to get rid of him, but he's earning his keep providing purebred fertile eggs to hatchers.)

So it is possible the guy selling them pegged them all as female. Apparently color-sexing this breed isn't 100%.

Yes, they were supposedly 3 weeks old when we got them. Wow, I wish we could keep him and get fertilized eggs and chicks! If only we could find a house in the true country with no neighbors... we have been looking so long. But I guess it does seem like Welsummers are a little harder to identify 100% as female than it seemed at first!

 

[Silkiesarefluffydinos]

Most definitely a roo! I'm sorry.. we've had to rehome multiple roosters because we can't have any roos either.. most hatcheries allow you to trade you your rooster back for a pullet if they are sexed chicks, and they will rehome them. Our hatchery does that

 

[Silkiesarefluffydinos]

That we get our chicks from

 

[bobbi-j]

Wow, this was an interesting read. Thank you everyone for your input. I had actually been reading about "changing sex" because the guy insisted he was a she, and the fact that there are no spurs and he doesn't crow.

Every time I look at him the past few weeks, we called him "not-a-rooster" because we were so confused and the guy insisted he was a she. But after posting that picture yesterday I looked at it and thought how can he not be... Today I went out to take some better pictures and yep, I definitely see all the signs I was, I suppose, trying to ignore.

Any reason why he isn't crowing yet? And no spurs? Dare I hope to be so lucky to have a quiet rooster?

Since they're all the same breed, it's much easier to identify. He's clearly larger, more colorful and has longer tail feathers than the others. One good tell-tale sign is to look at his hackle feathers (at the base of the neck) and saddle feathers (at the base of his back). On a rooster they are longer, thinner and pointy. They're more rounded on a hen. My guess is, he's not crowing because he's young, and because he has no competition. He is an absolutely gorgeous bird. I wish you could keep him, but get it that you can't.

Right now, we are talking about calling him "Lola", clipping his tail feathers and telling people he has a gender identity issue