Too-la-ROO-la-ree?

[OzarkEgghead]

The one in the original photo I posted that we've determined IS a roo...I was pretty sure he was because he is MUCH more active than the others, tends to be rather assertive around the other chickens & I've seen him chest bumping one of the light yellow ones....but I can't recall if it's one of the yellow ones with the red wings or a plainer yellow one. I'll have to keep an eye out for who he tries to bully & she if it's just a random pullet or another cockrel.

 

[Folly's place]

Cockerels vary in when they start crowing. my earliest ever was a little Fayoumi, at 28 days of age! Right now I have a Chantecler cockerel and a Wyandotte cockerel, both born mid-May, who are still silent. Our two mid-April EE bantam boys have been sounding off for two months already...
Mary

 

[OzarkEgghead]

I would think that at 12 weeks, the cockerels would be crowing. My boys were crowing at 8 weeks. Now at 12, the one I kept is a very loud crow-er

I haven't heard any crowing from any of them but the one in the original photo that I posted is noticeably bigger than the others so I think everyone is right that he's a cockrel. Maybe he's a late crowing bloomer.....or just shy. Lol

 

[SueT]

I haven't heard any crowing from any of them but the one in the original photo that I posted is noticeably bigger than the others so I think everyone is right that he's a cockrel. Maybe he's a late crowing bloomer.....or just shy. Lol

I forgot to mention, mine are bantam EE’s. They may bloom earlier. And technically EE’s being mixed breed, you could get all kinds of variations…

 

[maryn7]

OMG, I never realized photographing chickens could be so darn hard! Just as I got one snapped they'd all scramble & I'd lose track which ones had been photographed & which weren't! I think I finally have photos of all of the ones I'm questioning gender.
Despite the color on the wings, I'm thinking #1 is a pullet (??). All of the others seem suspicious (to my uneducated eye) for being cockrels. If I'm right, that puts me at 6 roosters!

Guessing you got them from Cackle. Your white/gold and gray/gold EEs look just like mine did, and I've seen that pattern a lot the past two years on the board. I was *convinced* my gray/gold was a male - but she lays lots of blue eggs (though she also crows!).

The red leakage is a concern mostly if it is breaking up their pattern, like in the very first picture you posted. If there is a reddish orange in the wing area as part of their overall pattern, that doesn't necessarily mean male. The usual caveats that I'm not an expert aside, I think your 1, 5, 6 and 7 are pullets. #4 I'm a little on the fence, but I wouldn't be surprised if she was a pullet, too. The other two with different patterns look like pullets to me, too.

 

[OzarkEgghead]

Guessing you got them from Cackle. Your white/gold and gray/gold EEs look just like mine did, and I've seen that pattern a lot the past two years on the board. I was *convinced* my gray/gold was a male - but she lays lots of blue eggs (though she also crows!).

The red leakage is a concern mostly if it is breaking up their pattern, like in the very first picture you posted. If there is a reddish orange in the wing area as part of their overall pattern, that doesn't necessarily mean male. The usual caveats that I'm not an expert aside, I think your 1, 5, 6 and 7 are pullets. #4 I'm a little on the fence, but I wouldn't be surprised if she was a pullet, too. The other two with different patterns look like pullets to me, too.

I did, indeed, get them from Cackle Hatchery. I've gotten several other breeds from them over the years such as Dominiques, Wyandottes, Speckled English Sussex, etc & been happy with the quality but this is my first foray into EE's. Each time I add to my flock, I try to get a different breed from what I already have so I can see at a glance which set are getting older & nearing the end of egg production. I have one, each, of the last 3 sets still in my flock...an English Sussex that I named Shawshank because of her propensity to find every tiny way to bust out of the "henitentiary", a Silver-laced Black Wyandotte I named Lazaretta because she survived a coyote attack I was sure would kill her & the grand ol' dame at 8 yrs old...my Black Australorp, Onyx. I ordered 15 pullets & Cackle sent 18. One is evidently a roo...maybe more??? One also became SEVERELY cross-beaked at 2 wks. I was going to "dispatch her" but she showed such a zest for life & such spunk that I couldn't bring myself to do it. She lived a very happy existence until she was 10 wks old. Went out that afternoon & found she had peacefully passed like she had simply fallen asleep. I miss her quite a bit. She was so, so sweet & absolutely LOVED to be cuddled...would run to me & beg to be held every time she saw me.

I almost decided to try raising Ancona ducks this time...and a part of me wished I had....mostly because they don't fly so I wouldn't need to build the Fort Knox-style run for them that Shawshank's escapes forced me to build for the chickens. I'm still mulling it over but I might just add them in the Spring, anyway.

 

[Emmaloveschickens9156]

100% roo! He’s a pretty one