Sexing 10 week old white leghorn

[Rosecityflock]

I’m starting to think Alice might be Almonzo. She’s 10 weeks old, comb has been fully red for a week or two (had tinges of pink before that). We have a mixed flock so no other leghorns to compare her to, but her tail is more erect than all my other hens. It’s the curled feathers at the base of her tail that are making me suspicious. We had a rooster last year and the first sign was iridescent feathers, but that’s not something I can look for with an all-white bird. Thoughts? Pullet or cockerel?

 

[Rosecityflock]

Here’s another picture of her a week or two ago, so around 9 weeks old

 

[black_cat]

I'm sorry, but you have a cockerel.

 

[chikns]

roo for sure

 

[cherrynberry]

Cockerel...

 

[Duckbreeder2020]

Here’s another picture of her a week or two ago, so around 9 weeks old View attachment 2713546

Yea that’s 100000000% a cockerel. Sorry

 

[TheAlrightyGina]

Yeah that's a boy. It can be hard to tell early on in Leghorns because both sexes get big ol' combs, but as they get big the pullet combs flop over. Also, their tails look like a rectangle/flag.

 

[Rosecityflock]

Thanks, everyone! I spent some more time with him after posting this and his saddle feathers got more and more obvious to me the longer I looked. I guess we’ll have to rehome the little guy! We wanted to keep our roo last year but he crowed too much for our neighborhood. Just for fun, here’s a photo of our buddy Clive with our hens last year, all Easter Eggers. He now lives on a farm with a small flock of Rhode Island Red ladies. And the other is a photo of our new babies this year, taken last month - White Leghorn, Spotted Sussex, Silver Laced Wyandotte, RI Red, and Buff Orpington.

 

[cherrynberry]

Thanks, everyone! I spent some more time with him after posting this and his saddle feathers got more and more obvious to me the longer I looked. I guess we’ll have to rehome the little guy! We wanted to keep our roo last year but he crowed too much for our neighborhood. Just for fun, here’s a photo of our buddy Clive with our hens last year, all Easter Eggers. He now lives on a farm with a small flock of Rhode Island Red ladies. And the other is a photo of our new babies this year, taken last month - White Leghorn, Spotted Sussex, Silver Laced Wyandotte, RI Red, and Buff Orpington.View attachment 2713637View attachment 2713630

Wow... The leghorn was a really fast developing male...

 

[Lady Clucks-a-Lot]

Yeah that's a boy. It can be hard to tell early on in Leghorns because both sexes get big ol' combs, but as they get big the pullet combs flop over. Also, their tails look like a rectangle/flag.

I agree. Though I have to say that my California White hen, a cross between White Leghorn and Grey roo (but still mostly looks all white except for just a FEW, like one or two little black dots) has a big comb, but surprisingly, her comb stays absolute straight up like a roo (but I'm very sure she's a hen because we've had her for two years and she's never crowed and she has been laying eggs everyday.