Yikes! Is my she a he?

[KKdaChickenTender]

Isn't nine weeks a little early for a crow? My five cockerels are coming up to 12 weeks and some of them are just starting to try out the crowing thing. Lol, they are not very good at it!

I don't know for sure, but I see a lot of posts about the 6 week olds crowing !

 

[KKdaChickenTender]

I saw a bin full of Barred Plymouth Rock chicks in Tractor Supply recently. They were labeled as pullets but the majority of them were cockerels. I know because you can sex Barred Plymouth Rocks by their head dot.

Thanks for that tidbit of info

 

[ThatOnePotato]

Lower belly trick? What?

Basically you get them on their back and have 2 fingers in a v position and press on the lower belly and look for something poking out between your fingers. My dad taught me this and it's a weird one but it has worked for me when sexing our ducklings when they hatched last Christmas. The only thing is you need to have them atleast a few weeks old and big enough for you to do so.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

I don't know for sure, but I see a lot of posts about the 6 week olds crowing !

Well that's good to know! I guess my boys are ... late bloomers!

 

[fluffycrow]

Isn't nine weeks a little early for a crow? My five cockerels are coming up to 12 weeks and some of them are just starting to try out the crowing thing. Lol, they are not very good at it!

No, not too early. Almost all of my cockerels have started crowing at six weeks and that is the average. The earliest for crowing I have had is at around three weeks.

Different birds mature at different rates. Even within the same lines, and parentage.

I've personally never had an LF cockerel crow before the 5, 5 and a half month old mark. There are a lot of factors that contribute to a male's crowing (or lack thereof).

It's difficult to determine an "average" in such situations

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Basically you get them on their back and have 2 fingers in a v position and press on the lower belly and look for something poking out between your fingers. My dad taught me this and it's a weird one but it has worked for me when sexing our ducklings when they hatched last Christmas. The only thing is you need to have them atleast a few weeks old and big enough for you to do so.

Poking out? From the vent, or where?

 

[ThatOnePotato]

Poking out? From the vent, or where?

It would be poking out between your fingers that are in the v shape on their lower belly. So when you press your 2 fingers down and something pokes out it would be in between said 2 fingers

 

[ShrekDawg]

Basically you get them on their back and have 2 fingers in a v position and press on the lower belly and look for something poking out between your fingers. My dad taught me this and it's a weird one but it has worked for me when sexing our ducklings when they hatched last Christmas. The only thing is you need to have them atleast a few weeks old and big enough for you to do so.

Poking out? From the vent, or where?

It would be poking out between your fingers that are in the v shape on their lower belly. So when you press your 2 fingers down and something pokes out it would be in between said 2 fingers

I think this only works on ducks. Chickens don’t have that part.

 

[ThatOnePotato]

I think this only works on ducks. Chickens don’t have that part.

I personally haven't tried it on a chicken yet since we have no more chicks atm so I'm not sure if its only for ducks or what currently. So no definite say it would work but it's worth the try when unsure.

 

[SwampPrincessChick]

Different birds mature at different rates. Even within the same lines, and parentage.

I've personally never had an LF cockerel crow before the 5, 5 and a half month old mark. There are a lot of factors that contribute to a male's crowing (or lack thereof).

It's difficult to determine an "average" in such situations

I agree, there is a variety of different crowing times, but I see a lot of posts about six-week-olds crowing, as @KKdaChickenTender stated. My latest crow I have ever had was a Speckled Sussex cockerel that started crowing at six months old. I was wondering if he was ever going to crow, and then I heard a sound like a dying chicken. "OOO-ORRR-UHHH!"