when can I tell hens from late-maturing roosters (when can I be SURE?)

[patandchickens]

This is sort of a duplicate of what I originally posted a couple days ago under 'Everything Else Chicken' -- it got totally ignored except for a suggestion to move it here, so I'm restarting it over here. If this was not the way to do this, I apologize to the moderators.

So -- I have 9 Speckled Sussexes and 4 Buff Chanteclers, at 14 weeks old. Two of the sussexes are conspicuously roosters and have been for probably 6-8 weeks. Two of the chanteclers I also am pretty sure are boys - one has much redder and slightly larger comb and wattle-vestiges than the others (remember chanteclers are cushion-combed and almost wattle-less) and he and another have both been crowing.

But, what if some of the apparent non-roosters aren't hens at all but instead are just 'peter pan' types, and actually males? (I got messed up by this with my Campines - two days after I sold the 4 definite roos, one of the remaining 'hens', which the poultry breeder to whom I sold the roos agreed was prolly a hen, started crowing all over the place and growing a bigger comb

)

I would post 'can you tell me the sex' photos of the most questionable birds except I am the world's lousiest poultry photographer and just CANNOT, especially for the sussexes, get photos where you can actually see the birds well enough from reasonable angles

So I guess I'm asking, for chanteclers and for sussexes, at what age would you conclude that if it has not yet crowed or developed obvious male secondary sex characteristics it probably really IS a hen?

Sorry to be so dense (and photographically impaired),

Pat

 

[keljonma]

I don't know about your Sussex and Chanteclers. But our Golden Campine roo was crowing at 5 weeks of age....

 

[patandchickens]

Quote:
Heh, one of my campines crowed at a little over 2 wks old

They are Not Like Other Chickens, though, as far as I can tell (not like non-mediterranean breeds anyhow).

Which is why I don't trust my sussex and chanteclers even at this age.

Pat

 

[keljonma]

Quote:
That is one macho bird!

 

[ChickenToes]

I have EEs, and they were hard to tell at first because of their pea combs. So I looked at the thickness of the legs, roos have thicker legs than pullets. Then I looked at redness of the comb. Both are pretty good indicators. There's also a way to tell with the feathers, but I'm still not clear on that one, maybe someone else can explain it.

 

[PotterWatch]

I figure the only sure way to tell is to wait for crowing or eggs if you don't see definite signs either way from comb, wattles, and feathers.

 

[fullhouse]

Sussex look like roos pretty early, by 9-10 weeks. Big comb, green-black tail feathers, chunky legs. If you could post pics that would help. I have 5 sussex ladies, and Pepper just got culled. He had a bad attitude