Pullet or Roo?

[knabtastic]

We were told by the farmer we bought from that this was a pullet, but "she" crows in the morning and I'm not convinced that we got a girl chicken.

Getting ready to crow in this pic.

What do ya'll think?

 

[SweetSilver]

Hard to see feather shape on that white. I initially agreed with "roo", if so those feathers still have some growing to do.

Orpington?

 

[knabtastic]

Supposed to be leghorn, which is why I'm not sure. The leghorn hens have such huge combs and waddles. This one doesn't have the extra toe/hook on the legs that roo's have, so again, I'm not sure.

 

[SweetSilver]

That tail is very hennish-looking at this point, but it's hard to get a clear view of the hackle feathers or the saddle feathers. I see some suggestions of pointy-ness. Again, the white makes it hard to see in the photos. Overall, it seems rather hennish in general to me from the pictures.

I'm done guessing!

 

[Gayleyy]

Looks like a little girl to me. I know it sounds odd, but sometimes hens will crow or make an attempt to. How old is it?

 

[Mountain Peeps]

If "she" is crowing then "she" is probably a he. Does "she" crow all day? I would guess roo but "she" does look like a she. Like, Gayleyy^ said, hens sometimes crow.

 

[enola]

How old is this chicken? Do you have a rooster?

 

[knabtastic]

Not old enough to lay yet, we aren't allowed to have roosters in my city, and "she" only crows when we first let them out of the coop in the morning. Our other leghorn doesn't crow and seems a bit skinnier. Pics below:

This is the one I would have thought might have been a roo, but "she" is quiet.

 

[knabtastic]

Both my white leghorns will occasionally charge each other, and my black sex-link pullets, with their neck feathers fluffed out. Almost like a cobra. Does that make them males for sure, or do the leghorn hens do that too?

 

[knabtastic]

So, I keep posting on this and I don't think anyone is "listening" anymore. That's ok, cus I can use this as a chronicle of my journey to discovery.
After doing much more research I think I'm 80% sure that Thelma is actually a boy. I'm still not convinced that Louise is a boy, but time will tell I guess. I took more/better pics to try to help identify the features that are confusing me.

Here's Thelma. She/He is smaller and skinnier than Louise and has a smaller comb and waddles that aren't as red. However, she/he has very pronounced pointy saddle feathers which I found are a dead giveaway for roos. She/He also doesn't seem to mind when we come around as long as we don't try to touch her/him. If we try to touch she/he will run away. However, there is no extra toe present that roos have.


Here's Louise. She/He is much bigger (think beefier) than Thelma and the other pullets. Her/his comb and waddles are very large and red, however, the she/he doesn't really have the length or fullness of the saddle feathers that Thelma has. It also seems like her/his comb is starting to bend over, like I know they do in leghorn hens. Louise is very skittish when we come near her/him and makes sure to keep her/his distance (seems at least 6ft is comfortable for her/him). I had to play with the color saturation of the pic so Louise's feathers could be seen. She/He is much whiter than Thelma.


So there you have it. I'm seeing confusing and conflicting traits in both birds, so I really don't know what to think; i.e., what is normal in hens for this breed vs what is definitely a gender driven characteristic. I don't want chicks, and roosters are not allowed in my city, so if I have a roo I need to get rid of it ASAP. None of my birds have started laying yet, so this is pretty hard and frustrating. I know that sexing chicks is difficult and unless it's a sex-link breed no one can be 100% sure, but it would really be ironic if I asked for 2 leghorn pullets and got 2 leghorn roos.