silent scream? or are my roosters coming out of the closet?

[socks]

o.k. so I've got 7 little chickies, the youngest being about 12 days old and the oldest about 15. And of course like any other newbie I am trying to suss out who is going to break my heart and be a boy.

A few of them have this very watchful as well as bossy behaviour and yeah I know, pecking order and all that but whenever I hover these 3 are the most alert and look up as if to let me know they have their eyes on me and expect nothing good from my quarter (don't seem to have put together the fact that I am the one serving dinner and drinks)...

Anyway, I try to fraternize with them daily by holding them and recently have started doing it in pairs as it seems to freak them out a little less and 2 days ago as we were chilling one of them opened it's beak very wide a few times as if it couldn't control what it was doing...I thought oh dear! something is stuck in its throat, but no it didn't seem so but it looked like a silent scream....so then I thought "she's seen my to do list!"

but when I saw the neck stretch out I thought oh no! S/He's being overcome by the urge to crow! Since yesterday the other suspects for my rooster list have done the same thing.

So whatcha think? yeah .... just babies so who knows....on the other hand if by any chance this is an indication of a health problem please let me know so I can relax and enjoy the antics

 

[19sarah90]

Sounds hilarious!

Of course, I couldn't tell you if anything was wrong or not. I think you should be able to tell by cones whether you have roosters or not long before they start trying to crow.

Maybe it was a big chicky yawn!

 

[elmo]

Ours do that, too, and I've also seen many other kinds of birds do a similar thing. I think they're just moving food from their crops into the esophagus so it can move down into the stomach.

 

[raspeary]

I knew my cornish x was a roo from a young age. His comb grew in a lot faster than the hens and he did the same thing wiht his mouth. although his first few attempts sounded like screams. He almost had the tone and meloday mastered before his butcher day. His 3 cornish hens are lost without him now. I also have 2 suspected Rhode Island Red roo's but they haven't tried to crow yet.

 

[California Ducken]

Yep, my boys do the same, but have a tiny cute scratchy peep. Only to become a loud crow.
Yes, elmo is right. All my chicks if they engorge themselves with fresh corn, they do the neck stretching thing to shift food in their crop.

 

[socks]

Well thanks everybody, I guess this isn't definitive boy posturing. I do have a friend who swears he's 100% right sexing with a pendulum so I might get him down to swing a few bars...

By the way, in case any of you like me have been having some trouble chillin' with the chicks, yesterday I hung out with them with my husband's laptop (noooo! honey that's not poo! on your keyboard, my chicks are potty trained) and BYC. We had the best time ever i.e. there wasn't all this trying to squiggle away from me or climb my face to my head (ooh, which also means 'toilet' ). They just sat peacefully while I read. So I guess a little less hands on is better for chick/me relations.

I think I'll show them a video I took of them last field trip .

thanks again