when can you tell roo or hen?and other ???

[amydzek]

When can you tell and how can you tell?
also I have one baby that hatched after everyone else and mama was ignoring him/her, I pulled him out of the coop and brought him in, fed him sugar water and kept him warm and now he is perfectly fine, except mama hen still hates him!!!! She attacks him everytime I try to bring him back in the coop, any suggestions??? Thanks everyone! My peepers are 4 weeks old now!!!

 

[peacock 05]

That's a tough one with mama hating it!! But with the hen or roo part they are like 3-4 months I think when you can tell. The roosters will have saddle and hackle feathers which are the feathers that would stand up on the roo when he's trying to protect the hens. And the Roos will have more pointy feather s and the hen would have rounder smoother feathers! Hope this helps!!!!

 

[jellybellyx6]

Sometimes hens are funny like that. She may since he is weaker and does not want to put the effort into protecting him so is rejecting him and letting nature take it's course. Ducks will walk their babies through mud because she senses that one or more of her ducklings are weaker so that the weak duckling will get caught and the stronger ducklings will walk right through it. At least that is what an old farmer of my husband has taught him. Chances are if she has rejected him she will never accept him has her baby so it would be best to keep him apart from the rest until he is older and can protect himself.

Each breed is different on when you can tell weather they are roosters or hens for example RIR can be told apart by the dark spots on their heads (while this is not 100% correct we have had success telling ours apart from day one), some people can tel the differance when chicks are a day old by looking at the wing feathers ( the chicks with double wing feathers I believe are cocks but I am not 100% sure on that one).

I hope this helps out a little bit. Good luck with your chick.

 

[JanetS]

Chickens are social animals and need to be among other chickens. You could try having a separate pen beside the mother and split the chicks in half between the two pens. The mother will hopefully become accustomed to the presence of the chick. Good luck.

 

[amydzek]

That's what we thought, we put him in a cage in the coop with his mom and brothers and sisters but they all just peck at him and try to get him in the cage!!!

 

[peacock 05]

That's sad!!!!

 

[amydzek]

We brought him back inside!! We foolishly thought that after 3 days of being next to each other that I could let them all out to forage together and maybe they would all be friends... Well the mama hen attacked the baby... He is ok but now I have no idea what to so with him/her...

 

[Peacocks 05]

Better today?

 

[JanetS]

While you have him inside have you tried putting 1 or 2 of the other chicks in with him? You would need to watch them very closely. Maybe without the mom around this would work. If not you may have to rehome him. Good luck.

 

[amydzek]

No luck they are all mean to him :'( we are looking for a new home now