Roosters? Or Just Hens Establishing The Pecking Order?

[Jess_Amy]

We have twelve bantams - two hens and ten 6-week-old chicks. There are two chicks - Amber and Caoimhe - who have a tendency to challenge the dominant hen. A few days ago these two chicks starting fighting each other. They fought for half an hour before they had to be separated. By this point Caoimhe had a large area on one side of her face very badly bruised purple, and Amber was bruised and swelling on both sides of her face with numerous cuts all over it too. So we thought that they must both be roosters

However ... although they have fought since, it was much shorter and never caused any obvious injuries, and today the fight ended with one burrowing underneath the other. Does this mean that they could be hens who both wanted to be at the top of the pecking order?

 

[Catalina]

Do you have any pictures of your birds? That would make sexing easier.

What size coop/run are they in? Can they get away from each other if they want to?

It could just be pecking issues, but if they have grown up together usually chicks figure the pecking order out by 6 weeks.

 

[Lollipop]

Many bantams are rough little killers. The fight you had dosen`t indicate sex, only determination as pullets are just as rough as cockerals at young ages. They may be males, but you can`t tell by chick fights.