Thursday, September 22, 2011

Day of Reckoning

At 10 weeks or so, you are supposed to be able to correctly sex your chicken with some degree of absolution.  It is hard to believe, but my girls have already passed the two month mark.  It is assumed that at this point in their short lives, tell-tale signs will appear that will help you to officially label your birds hen or rooster.    This is assuming, of course, you have sexed chickens before, or that you have multiple chickens of the same breed for comparison purposes.  But for novices like me with a small backyard flock, we are left to freakishly and obsessively examine every feather, every bump on a comb, and every squawk for fear that one of our beloved shes is actually a he.  I am one such freak.  In fact, I am so currently freaked that I have spent an inordinate amount of time in front of the computer scouring the internet and lurking in chicken chat rooms for any morsel or clue that might lead me to a positive conclusion.  It is shameful, I know.  I am embarrassed to admit it, but heaven help me, if one of my girls crows, I may just have to list my piece of suburbia and head for the rooster lovin' country.  Such is my fondness for my flock.

So please, for the love of chickens and all that is fluffy, could someone with knowledge of things such as pointy hackle feathers and spur bumps and varying degrees of red combs give this chicken lover a good nights rest?

They are all 10 weeks and a few days.

Iron undies on.

Lay it on me.  Pullet or roo?

Barred Rock (feelin' pretty good about this one).  I'm going to go with pullet.


















Buff Orpington (feeling good here, too).  Pullet for sure.


 Easter Egger.  Confidence waning.  Apparently, they are easy to sex by color which indicates pullet, but she's got some serious spur bumps.



Rhode Island (or production) Red.  Optimistic.  However, her comb is slightly redder than the others.  Her legs are no thicker.  So, pullet?

UPDATE
The consensus appears to be that all my girls are indeed just that.  Girls.  What a relief.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...