What Gender is My Wyandotte?

[TheLezzyChicks]

Over the summer I took the risk of buying chicks from a farmer on craigslist. In this batch I got one Silver Laced Wyandotte and a Blue Cochin. Among others. As the chicks grew I did notice that my Cochin grew faster than the other chicks but I assumed this was because of the breed. My Wyandotte on the other hand was small and sickly looking, and I honestly didn't expect it to survive the upcoming winter of Washington. But to my surprise it plumped up and all excelled beyond my other chicks. My Cochin ended up being an obvious rooster (Being the largest chicken I'd ever seen) Not to mention the monotonous crowing that droned on of all hours of the day, and night for that matter. We ended up giving him away to a family who was more fit to look after a rooster of his proportions. The rest of my flock I assumed were pullets. I had three two year old hens also who were the same size as them. I didn't notice anything out of the ordinary with my Wynadotte except for its comb which was bumpy and flat. But once again I chopped it up to the breed. Recently I've been notcing a chocking sort of crow coming from my coop every so often. Nothing like my Cochin but still different from any of my other girls. I'm almost positive the rest of my chickens are hens. But I'm not completely sure on this one. I would like to use him for breeding if it does end up being a rooster. Much thanks

 

[fancyfowl4ever]

You have a splash laced red Wyandotte rooster there

 

[ChickenWisperer]

Well, first things first, that's most certainly not a silver laced Wyandotte - it's a splash laced red Wyandotte. Also, no question about it, that thing is a roo up one side and down the other.

 

[TheLezzyChicks]

Thank you so much for the reply. But how can you tell? He's almost eleven months old and I havent seen him try to mount my hens or anything like that. And I'm worried that I wont be able to get any chicks this year if he's female

 

[TheLezzyChicks]

Well jeeze haha. I really need to do my research before buying from random people. Half of what he sold me died. And he told me he was silver laced. Dang it. Well he's still a pretty little thing. Thank you for the reply :3

 

[shmccarthy]

100% without a doubt male. see the long pointy feathers on the neck? Those are its hackle feathers and roosters have shiny points ones and hens have rounded ones. Same goes for the saddle feathers at the base of the tail. Roosters will also have other traits that hens usually don't. Roosters tend to have a lot thicker, stockier legs and larger combs and wattles. They also will stand more upright. The crowing is also usually a sure sign of a boy. Hens can sometimes crow, but not younger pullets and they only seem to do it if there's no rooster around, and the hen has taken the dominant lead. But other than that, it's the boys that crow. And even though it doesn't sound like much now, he may find his voice once he gets a bit better practicing and it will sound more crow like.

If you have another rooster, that may be why you haven't seen him mount the other hens or display a lot of rooster traits. Sometimes the beta rooster will just try to slip under the radar of the alpha rooster, and beta roosters aren't allowed to mount hens in front of the alpha, it's a dominance thing.

Again, he's 100% boy, no doubt in my mind!

 

[TheLezzyChicks]

Thank you that clears a lot of my questions up :3 Hopefully I'll have some cute chicks soon from him.

 

[shmccarthy]

He's very pretty! I'm sure he'd make some really adorable chicks.

 

[donrae]

Sorry you had a bad seller....but personally I'd far rather have a splash laced bird than a silver laced. They're more unusual and I love the splash coloring. It's also fun to play with genetic-wise.

The type of comb he has is called a rose comb, and you're correct it's a breed thing, all Wyandottes should have that type, hens and roosters. It's also dominant over straight combs, so his chicks will have rose combs.

If you have black or black-based hens, he'll make blue or blue based babies with them--pretty! What breeds of hens do you have?

 

[TheLezzyChicks]

I have turkens, molted javas, a couple of red rocks, and an astrolorp. My astrolorp is a really pretty jet black so I'm glad that you said the chicks will be pretty :3