When can you tell if you have any roo's?

[Finnie]

Something I haven’t seen mentioned yet, what do their shoulders look like? Almost all of my cockerels will have bald looking shoulders while the pullets’ wings feather in more completely.

 

[katy5]

I've had a game rooster that his comb and spurs didn't come out till after a year. Also had game hens that would fight with their brothers. Currently i have two roosters that look like hens, their tail feathers are pointed not round like the hens.

 

[katy5]

These are both males, dont remember how old they are here. The one on the left looks like the dad and the one on the right looks like the mom

 

[Sadness Child]

Depending on the breed, you can tell in a few days, as soon as the first feathers start to come in. In my experience, the girls' wing feathers will start to come in much faster than the boys'. Their feathering out is always ahead of the boys. Secondly, the boys grow long, stout legs while their bodies still resemble fuzzy tennis balls; the girls seem to stay closer to the ground in stature, and have a longer, more sweeping, front-to-back appearance like small birds and not chicks. Not 100% accurate, but in the 90-something percent accuracy range. This holds true for the heritage breeds I've raised.

I agree I had a 2/3 success rate using this method, I compared a pair and the more feathered in one was the hen so I compared the other one to the rest 2 others looked the same feather wise and one was a buckeye and the other is a bantam cochin pullet

 

[Owain1]

Depends on the breed. I just got two Amerucanas that are less than a week old and I'm already 99% certain one is a rooster.

 

[Sadness Child]

The base breed that I compared everyone with was a pair of Blue Jersey Giants which I could not be happier about

 

[anita2bennetts]

Too early to tell for sure, but lots of suspect combs in there from size, but not color. Usually cockerel combs get darker red than the pullets. I also look at the girth of the legs. In my experience cockerels have a much more developed undercarriage / thicker legs than my pullets. Ultimately, when they start feathering out well you can tell from their saddle and arrow feathers. And of course there's always that first pathetic crow that sounds like a cross between a dying frog and a cat in heat.

i love that description

 

[rebeccaH86]

I would wait another week and then things really start to look different, my little Echo went from little yellow comb and no wattles to this in one week. He's 4 weeks (maybe 5) I was told they were only a week old on the 6th.

 

[wkshaddon]

I have anticipated and re anticipated if/which of my chicks are roos's. I ordered all pullets, but I have suspisions of some being roo's. I was wondering, at what age can I/BYC tell the difference between roo's and pullets? Thank you!

Spread out the wings, girls will have 2 rows of feathers and rooster only one row. Also they tend to stand more upright. They will also start bobbing their heads and jumping toward each other in practice battles

 

[wkshaddon]

Okay thanks, good to know. I think I have one that can't fly off the ground, lol!

Here are my pics

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I would guess #9 and #6 have good chance of being roosters.