telling roos from hens

[wefroggy]

At what age can you begin to tell them apart? I have RIR's and Delawares and the ones that feathered earliest are also the ones that have the bigges comb development. They are 8 weeks old. Also, do hens of the same breed have different size combs? I also have 2 Egyptian Fayoumis, one has a bigger comb than the other. I had ordered 2 hens and am hoping they didn't make a mistake.
Thanks to all.

 

[gritsar]

In most breeds the secondary sex characteristics start to show themselves between four and six weeks old.
Can you post some pics of your chicks? I'm sure there are BYCers who could help you figure them out.

 

[wefroggy]

I will try to get some pics up tomorrow.

 

[cmom]

If they are developing their combs at 8 weeks they're probably Roos. Roos usually start to develop their comes earlier than pullets.

 

[wefroggy]

Here are the pics from today,

Largest comb on my Delawares.

Egyptian with comb.

Egyptian without comb

this is the largest comb on the RIR's.

 

[sangel4you]

so I am confused as to which ones you know to be roosters and which ones you are questioning? The only one I see for sure you can tell isn't a roo is the 2nd Egyptian, but that's because I don't know which ones are the same/different birds and which ones I'm comparing them to?
sorry....maybe I'm just blond underneath somewhere

 

[wefroggy]

I'm not sure who is who at all really. Just hoping someone could look at the pic and say ya, looks like a roo.
the pic of the RIR is the only one of those with a comb, all others only have a small pink ridge emerging. So i am guessing that would be my roo. It was hard to get pictures as I was being pecked at while doing it.

I put the pics of the egyptians up because they are supposed to both be hens.

 

[TennesseeTruly]

Your first Egyptian is a roo, sorry. The second one is a hen.

Laurie

 

[sangel4you]

yes I am in agreement...sorry :-( The delawares it's hard to say...they could be hens. How many hens and roos were you to have with the RIR and the Delawares? Or were they straight run? At 8 weeks, some of them could easily be girls with coombs and wattles. MY girls (I think) are almost 5 weeks and have had good coombs (they're still yellow/orange tho) for about 2 weeks now. I do have one that has a bigger coomb than the rest, but that one isnt any bigger, and actually may be a little smaller than the rest and is showing me no other signs that it could be a roo so I think it's very possible for hens of the same age/breed to have different size coombs.

 

[sangel4you]

also wanted to mention, you're egyptian roo is very handsome though....so I thought I'd throw this out there, in the furture once I know all my girls will lay ok (they tell me around 16-18weeks for their breed), if you'd be interested in a swap....that could be a possibility. I live in Central PA and have white leghorns.