Chicken question

[Tecumseh]

At what point does it become obvious that a chicken is a rooster? My niece hatched eggs in science class and I adopted two of them. I guess they are about 9 weeks old. If they were standard breeds I may be able to tell by now but as far as I can tell they aren't - all I know is the science teacher's brother provided the eggs - they weren't from a hatchery.
I can post pictures but I thought by now it might start to be kind of obvious and it really isn't.

[5150female]

I recently got 4 chicks for my birthday unexpectedly. I thought one of them may have been a rooster because it looked so different, but it turned out it was a Araucana and the other 3 were Leghorns. Whew, dodged that bullet. Here is a link to a great chicken breed chart to help identify the breed...and some links to resources. Its Hendersons Chicken Breed Chart if the link goes fubar.
http://www.ithaca.edu/staff/jhenderson/chooks/chooks.html

[SilverJeep]

If you have some from the same hatch to compare it to, the roos are usually larger, bigger feet, and a hint of a comb on top whereas the hens will be similar and smaller.

That being said, I have been fooled by late bloomers.

[ONG]

If one is going "cheap, cheap, cheap" that's the female. Other than that what Silver Jeep said.

[Argentsum]

Most egg-layer chicks sold are 90% female. Bought a batch of em one time that had 3 roosters. Sexing chicks is inexact.

Anyhow, once they put on a little weight I had one rooster and something tastier then a bucket of Kentucky Fried...

Learn how to process poultry. Its easy and its a skill that can come in handy.

In the case of Rhode Island Reds, the Comb & Tail feathers are completely different between genders.

[Tecumseh]

If one is going "cheap, cheap, cheap" that's the female. Other than that what Silver Jeep said.

Thanks for all the replies - I may try and post a picture. My wife says that one of them is starting to make a strange sound - like it is practicing crowing. I have yet to hear it other than when I pick one up against its will and it will bark - for the most part all they do is "cheap, cheap, cheap" but my full grown girls only cluck now and on occasion bark.

It sounds like I may have to wait awhile yet to be certain.

I would like to start keeping them togehter but one of them is crested and bearded - I thought it was perhaps an Appenzeller but the tuft leans backwards not forward. My full grown black star fights with that one - so until it is big enough to hold its own I may be asking for trouble.

As far as processing them that won't happen - I'm an old duck hunter its not a matter of knowing how or even the will on my end - my wife considers these pets so they will never find their way to the dinner table.

[Argentsum]

Ah sorry, didn't realize they were pets.

[techguy2]

Check the tip feathers of the wing.

If the quills have bands, where the other chicks do not, it is a pretty good indication.

This is called feather sexing, it is very easy in the sex-link breeds, but I have seen differences in RIR chicks.

There is approx 10% failure rate in sexting chicks by the big breeders. I received 2 roos in a batch of 25 last run.

Oddly enough, some hatcheries will use roos as packing material if you don't order enough pullets to fill the container. They are worth less to the breeders than packing material....

[Goldhedge]

If one is going "cheap, cheap, cheap" that's the female.
Other than that what Silver Jeep said.

Is that because the rooster doesn't buy her things?

... or did you mean "cheep, cheep, cheep"? :captain:

[Tecumseh]

Here are some pics. The last one is my girls inside their tractor.

[Lt Dan]

They look like pets to me, but then I make pets of mine. My wife on the other hand wants no part of making pets of chickens.

BTW, that white chick could be a rooster, but I'm not sure from the picture. I usually can tell by their actions and the brightness of the comb and size of the feet, but I have been wrong and fooled by late bloomers.

[ONG]

Is that because the rooster doesn't buy her things?

... or did you mean "cheep, cheep, cheep"? :captain:

You had it right the 1st time, cheap. Where's my grits, where's my corn, you never take me out. And you are a bum sex lasts 3 seconds!

[AMforPM]

We had one bird we named coco chanel till he started crowing, so I'm obviously not good at it. ;-)

Guessing from combs, etc, I say you've got all hens, but then..... if anybody crows, you know for sure.

[Lt Dan]

One of my new chicks I bought this year left me no doubt about his gender the other morning. I was working around the barn and heard this crowing coming from the chicken coop. I went out and watched and sure enough, he was proudly proclaiming his domain. Of course I already knew he was a rooster, but I was actually kind of proud of him myself, had to go in and pick him up and carry him around, pet that he is. Wife says, "Get that bird out of the house!" LOL!

[Tecumseh]

I heard the "practice crowing" this morning - oddly enough I believe that it was from the black chick. That was the one we were least concerned about based on appearance.
After reading responses here I did note that the comb and waddle while small are pretty intensely red and the feet seem slightly bigger on the black one than the white one.
I hope its nothing because we aren't keeping any roosters with our little flock.

[Goldhedge]

Other than the wake-up call, what's wrong with having a rooster?




Once you find which one is the rooster, you can always make soup....

[Tecumseh]

Other than the wake-up call, what's wrong with having a rooster?Once you find which one is the rooster, you can always make soup....


Nothing - I would actually like to have one.

Mrs. Tecumseh on the other hand is dead set against it. It was hard enough for her to accept "home grown" eggs to begin with. She doesn't eat eggs - only uses them for baking but even that was hard for her - she said that she was "grossed out" by them. I don't know why store bought eggs are different for her - maybe she never had to give much thought to where they came from.
A potentially feritlized egg is more than she could deal with. Normally I would reason with her but the extended family has said that they aren't interested in accepting my extra eggs if I have a rooster so I've come around to her point of view. My mom claims that an egg in one batch that I gave her had "brown specks" in it when she cracked it - since then she has politely declined my offer for excess eggs.
The modern American is a curious person I guess.

[crazychicken]

If you are looking at a survival type situation you want to have a rooster, or more. If the SHTF you are going to have to make your flock sustainable. Eating non-layers, roosters, fertile eggs to hatch.

Important considerations.

crazychicken

[Tecumseh]

I'm not a serious prepper - not saying that I shouldn't be but mostly the chickens are a hobby. Yes the thought crossed my mind that I could produce some food in a survival situation but realistically I am not in a long term sustainable position if TSHTF and there are enough folks with roosters around that I could probably barter for one.

[ONG]

I'm not a serious prepper - not saying that I shouldn't be but mostly the chickens are a hobby. Yes the thought crossed my mind that I could produce some food in a survival situation but realistically I am not in a long term sustainable position if TSHTF and there are enough folks with roosters around that I could probably barter for one.

So why aren't you a serious prepper?

Not trolling or the like, just wondering. I enjoy reading your other posts and you seem pretty sensible. Just wondering.

[Tecumseh]

So why aren't you a serious prepper?

Not trolling or the like, just wondering. I enjoy reading your other posts and you seem pretty sensible. Just wondering.

I understand and don't have a really good answer.

1. My wife doesn't see the world exactly like I do and truly committing to preparing for TEOTWAWKI might put a strain on our relationship - I hope that a committment to each other ultimately is more valuable than a committment to hard core preps.

2. As much as I think many things in the world today are unsustainable I don't know the future and overly committing to an unknown outcome seems a little bit speculative to me.

3. While its difficult not to be cynical about today's world I'm also hopeful that somehow no matter what life still goes on and while governments tend to be tyranical that people in general are decent and want to live together in peace - maybe I'm not quite as concerned about "zombie hordes" as others here are.

4. I try and live in the moment - I would hate to miss too much of today worrying about tomorrow. My kids are 4. Do I worry about their future? Yes. How much of it can I control? Probably not much. Would denying them a happy life today and some simple pleasures to be better prepared for TSHTF be worth it? I don't think so - I've made great memories with them for myself and hopefully them - very hard to put a price on that. None of us will leave this world with our preps but maybe we take our memories with us.

All that being said I fully understand why people prep and I have some basic preps that would provide some minimal protection and additional time to figure out how to survive.

[Lt Dan]

Tecumseh, I don't find your philosophy flawed at all. I have chickens for eggs first but also for meat. Wife loves the eggs, is not crazy about butchering chickens, but we do it. As for stockpiling preps, we grow most of what we store up for later use, no problem there for my wife, she is better at that than I am. I do have a quantity of ammo, but not for any supposed war, just for fun and shooting - a hedge against the type of shortages we've seen in that category in resent years.

Family and happiness are two important things needed for daily living. (Note my sig line about preparing to die). If we spend all our time worrying about the "what ifs" we will miss the joys of daily living we were meant to be here for. In time your wife may see the wisdom of some of this and gently lead her, never pressure her. We more or less consider it a lifestyle of subsistence living we both enjoy, because it is a lifestyle. Sometimes, we have this gypsy urge in us to sell it all and take to the road, just living day to day, but the urge never takes fruit. Since we are getting on in years and could travel more, we have the funds, doing it sounds rather tiring. Plus, we have a grandchild that lives across the drive from us. Daughter-I-L helps with the chicken butchering and gardening, so family ties and happiness are important to us.

[AMforPM]

Domestic tranquility is worth a lot.

Maybe just getting some extra of foods you ordinarily eat and pointing out the savings when prices go up you could interest your wife in a fuller pantry on the basis of saving money.

I don't foresee 'zombie hordes', but I think food is going to keep going up and incomes going down in purchasing power. I also think it is pretty likely that some urban areas may experience food shortages.

How hard the economy will crash remains to be seen, but last depression some starved to death. Katrina demonstrated how much worse than useless the government has become in any crisis, not only doing things wrong itself, but preventing citizens from helping. So I think extra food on hand is a good idea for many reasons.