This is a need to know!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[oesdog]

We are hoping these little ones are big enough to find out what they are boy or girl? We cannot keep Roos so it is really important that we get this right.

This first little one is very dark in colour so its hard to see her but we think she is a pullet - she seems to have shorter legs and her crown is very dark and only comes up the front of her head a tiny bit. There is NO red in it at all!!!!!!!! She does have a few dark brown feathers in her coat but mostly she is black. At the moment she is called BETTY if she is a Pullet?

Our other adult birds are on my other post, on what breed or gender - so all the chicks except Blue and Omlet are a x between one of them and a Roo that looked like a leg horn. All white with stand up crown. Betty is nothing like her Dad!!!!!!!

This one is Blue she is from a blue egg and we are sure she is an EE? she is not from our flock. We think and really hope she is a pullet??????? Please BE A GIRL!!!!!!

The reason we really want Blue to be a girl is because these two are inseperable and we believe the little dark one Omlet is a pullet.
What are BLUE and OMLET ???? What kind of chicken is Omlet she was not from our flock either.

It was soooooooo hard to get good pic of these chicks as they run all over and every shot was a blur!!!!!!! This is Duck - sadly we are thinking he is a Roo because his comb is starting to Redden up already! He is begining to look a bit like Omlet now but he is much bigger and actually started out looking just like our neighbors Mallard ducklings! Sadly he is losing those colours now.

This one I was trying to get a good shot of the fronts of the chicks. I got another shot of Duck and you can see he is quite large and red at the front. The other chick in the middle is a lovely brown colour, NUGGET I would love to say it is a girl but looking at it sadly the comb is also reddning - so I think another roo???? The last one in the picture is Agnes - another really dark colour but I hope I have managed to get a bit of her crown???? Betty and Agnes are very alike in colour and size and crown. We think this is another Pullet????

Betty in the back with Blue and then at the front nugget and omlet.

This next pic is of Omlet and Blue on a worm hunt trip. They never ever leave each other and cry if seperated even for a moment. They are brood box chicks the other 4 were Berthas babies.

These last photos are of our proud mum Bertha - we are pretty sure she is a hen!!!!!!!!!!!

I hope you all will be able to help us identify Roos from Pullets. If you need better photos - will try but these little guys are real hard to catch!!!!!! Sooooooo darn fast!!!!!!!!

Oesdog -

 

[glenolam]

It doesn't necessarily mean the chick is a rooster because the comb is turning red. My pullets have very red combs at 5 weeks old.

The best and easiest way I know to tell a rooster from a hen at this age is to watch the tail feathers. My roos all get dark, iridescent looking tail feathers that start to grow upwards instead of straight out - just as a normal rooster tail would. Their feet are usually larger, too, but that sometimes doesn't happen until they're bigger all around.

Good luck!

 

[oesdog]

Thanks - gives some hope that the two with the red combs may yet be girls however - The bigger one Duck really does seem to act like a boy!

It would be great to know for sure as we will need to start looking homes for the Roos. If we can;t get homes they will just have to be killed - which is something we don;t want - but in the end it is better than getting into bother with the neighbor and the council. They could come in here and make everyone here give up their Roos and it would be because of us. It is only our neighbor who complains. Everyone else seems to just take it that well we live in the country and back onto a farm so what do you expect? Raymond who loaned us our Rooster is only a few doors away and everytime I hear Sam our Roo who is now back with Raymond crow I wish he was with us. Poor chap got a really bad beating when he went back as their are 4 roosters at Raymond. One is bigger than Sam but the other 2 are bantums so their only a problem when they all gang up. They have settled down again so at least I know Sam is ok. - I guess though I couldn;t keep him and the baby Roos. - so sad really. Nugget the brown one outside is such a beautiful colouring almost owl like - I will be sad if its a Roo. I think Duck would be fine as I think it will be easier to get him a home as he is a real charactor. It would surprise me a lot if he did turn out to be a Pullet???? I am pretty sure the two dark ones are Pullets and Omlet too. But Blue I am crossing fingers on. Pretty sure that one is an EE and would be great to have the blue eggs!!!!!!!!!!!! She came from a blue egg!!!!!!!!!!! So I know she isn;t one of ours. We had Bertha on a nest and Elly on a nest and bought back ups in the incubator. Then Elly died and Bertha was sat on loads of eggs so we had to take some and leave them in the incubator with the boughten ones. We messed the temp up at the begining and cooked the eggs accidently so we lost a lot of them. Infact nearly all the eggs we bought. Ellys survived in the incubator until term but we somehow screwed up the humidity and lost 5 chicks through shrink wrap. So only two actually hatched out of the incubated/ Ellys egg. I know Blue is a bought egg - but not sure of Omlets origins. Could be one of ours from Ellys nest or a bought one?????? At the moment Duck and Omlet look alike but at the begining they were totally different so not really sure. I would like to know what the two from the brood box are? I know the 4 outside are a X between our girls and Sam the leg horn Roo. They were not mixed up. So We say those two are Parcel force! Our parcel dilivery firm because they came in the mail. Omlet could be Ellys one surviving chick?

Anyhow thanks for the info

Oesdog -

 

[CheerfulHeart2]

Cute birds! I too have some little ones I am trying to determine gender on. I may have to study the feather thing. What kind of bird is the Momma hen that is pictured???

 

[spikennipper]

Pretty sure Betty and Agnes are hens, and most likely Omlet is too, though I think that both Blue, Nugget and Duck are roos.