When do Polish get their wattles?

[CHICKEN BUFF]

At what age do Polish typically develop wattles? I have a dozen 13-week old assorted Polish. One buff-laced and one white-crested-black have had large bright red wattles and combs from a young age and they now have the spiky rock-star crests of roos.

None of the others have the slightest sign of wattles or any color in the face at all. I know that Polish are very tough to sex ---- is it too early to hope that the "wattle-less" Polish are female? Would a roo develop his wattles later than this? All five of the gold-laced in the bunch have "messy" hair, but not spiky. Could they still be roos?

EXTRA INFO - none of my birds have beards (I have "beard envy", LOL)

(PS - I have a couple of 2-year-old adult Polish hens, one with zero wattles or facial color, and one with big bright red wattles!)

Will post photos soon!

 

[summerb123]

 

[keesmom]

Are they bearded or non-bearded? Bearded birds have very tiny wattles, including the males. Non-bearded birds have much larger, noticeable wattles.

 

[summerb123]

Are they bearded or non-bearded? Bearded birds have very tiny wattles, including the males. Non-bearded birds have much larger, noticeable wattles.

agreed.

 

[CHICKEN BUFF]

Are they bearded or non-bearded? Bearded birds have very tiny wattles, including the males. Non-bearded birds have much larger, noticeable wattles.

Are they bearded or non-bearded? Bearded birds have very tiny wattles, including the males. Non-bearded birds have much larger, noticeable wattles.

None of my birds are bearded.

 

[summerb123]

None of my birds are bearded.

are you sure?

 

[CHICKEN BUFF]

are you sure?

Now you're scaring me! Is it possible they're bearded and they haven't grown their beards yet?

 

[summerb123]

lol
pictures?

 

[CHICKEN BUFF]

I'm sorry I didn't get back to this thread. Three of my Polish started crowing, so I didn't have to worry about sexing them! Sold a few of the crowd to folks who wanted both roos and hens (a rare thing!), so my problems took care of themselves.

Behavior seems to show the remaining birds to (probably) be hens -- they're very submissive to our roo. And they don't seem to have any sickle feathers.

Out of curiosity, I checked everyone for beards, and discovered that out of all of my birds, only two had beards and they were definitely girls. One is my older silver-laced, Priscilla (how did I not notice that before?), and one is a young buff-laced, which I kept.

Photos - You can see my Tolbunt roo, Rudy, who is over a year old now and doesn't have spectacular wattles. His harem is composed of the young Polish gals and a couple of Houdan pullets. In the cage is a definite roo and hen combo, which went to a very happy 4-H-er.

 

[Saundra4]

Ugh I have a polish pullet and she is 11weeks old she has a nice round feather pattern on her head. She started trying to crow yesterday,yikes!, it is a very weak and sad crow sound. Do pellets do this at times?