Possible Marans and Brahma Roosters? (UPDATED: All roosters?!)

[danielchelsea]

Hi everyone! We have 5 chickens whom we love very much, and I swear that I heard a wimpy attempt at a crow a few days ago. They are all around 7-8 weeks old. We've narrowed down the possible roos to 2- Little Fluffy the Brahma/Marans mix, and Marble the Marans. Little Fluffy developed much slower than her sister, who is the biggest chicken we have so far, so she is named Big Fluffy. Little Fluffy also is starting to get some bright amber colored feathers on his/her back and wings that Big Fluffy did not. Marble seems to be having the most behavioral changes, having multiple stand offs a day with the others. Plus Marble just looks lean and manly to me! Any help you all can give would be appreciated! Enjoy the pictures!..We only take a million of them a day

 

[Alexandra33]

Both are cockerels, and lovely!

~Alex

 

[danielchelsea]

Alex, how can you tell? I'm so fascinated by chicken sexing!

 

[DuckGirl77]

Both are cockerels, and lovely!

~Alex

x2

 

[rebrascora]

Hi from a fellow Brit.

I hate to tell you this but anything with a well developed pink/red comb at 7-8 weeks will be a cockerel, which unfortunately means that most if not all of your chickens are male. I can tell that you are really attached to them, so this is going to be a bit of a problem for you and if you do have one pullet amongst them, it is going to be a major problem for her too when they reach adolescence. I have looked at your other thread and both the leghorns look like males and all the ones in the photos on this thread are male. I'm not sure which one I haven't seen, but posting individual shots of each of them will help to confirm.

Regards

Barbara

 

[danielchelsea]

Ahhh I see, OK. Might need to take a breath or several.

There is one more Brahma that has a totally different style of comb, definitely not in a straight line and a lot more random. I am guessing that one is a she.

Don't know what to do at this point really, as silly as this sounds, do we keep just the boys and give our hen to one of our neighbours? Roosters are so hard to sell and/or give to a good home it looks like, we definitely are too soppy to a point where I couldn't have them killed.

Any advice would be lovely, cheers for the input so far.

 

[drumstick diva]

I hope you do have the one hen.

 

[danielchelsea]

Here are individual pictures of them for you all to mull over. Now we are trying to decide if we will need to find loving homes for the roosters, or if we should re home any hens and have a bunch of men! We wouldn't get any eggs, but we sure do enjoy their company. My only concern is the noise! Has anyone ever used a crow collar? I would be concerned about the long term effects or discomfort caused by them. I've got individual pictures of them all except Marble who is the speckled marans I posted earlier..I think he's an obvious roo! Thank you all for all of your help!


#1 Big Fluffy (Not previously pictured)





#2 Princess (Look at that adorable crooked toe!)



#3 Felicia




#4 Big Fluffy on the left and Little Fluffy on the right

 

[danielchelsea]

Also...Marble the Marans might actually be Marble the Barred Rock? I'm reading now that cukoo marans would have white legs, and Marble has bright yellow legs.

 

[DuckGirl77]

They all look like roos to me - except I can't see Little Fluffy's comb very well, but he looks like a roo anyways.