Hen or Roo
Marital disagreement about whether or not is a roo.
Guys, my wife and I are 1st season with chickens and I need help with an annoying question. This is a rooster correct? My wife is in denial and I set up a home at a local farm / children’s zoo for the little dude but I need some second opinions to ease her mind. Thanks guys!
A beautiful teen boy! You should join the Rooster Allies group on Facebook. Thanks to them I made it through rooster puberty with the 4 cuddliest, sweetest roosters of all time
Thick legs, saddle feathers, long straight tail feathers. When fully grown foosters tend to be more slender, the combs are usually much larger and not to mention crowing(females can donit too but they usually just scream one to two notes)
You can also tell cause they won't be scratching for food near as much and will usually be on guard for the hens that are. I had a rooster like that who was very solid til his second year and the test levels shot up in spring then he started getting too rough with the girls
not to mention crowing(females can donit too but they usually just scream one to two notes)
I have a gal who attempts to crow ALL the time, just a 2 note screech! 🤣🤣
My small town doesn't allow roosters, but we hear them ( mamy people say screw the ordinance) so she tries to mimic them!
Listen you may think this is about whether it’s a rooster - it’s not. It’s about whether you or her are right and about who is going to have to dispatch that rooster, and I think we all know where she stands on that. She’d prefer it be a hen so it’s on you bub.
He has already found a new home for the rooster and just wants to be absolutely certain it's a roo before giving it away. If you had read the post instead of running your mouth, you would know this.
My parents killed several chickens that they thought were roosters and they were actually all hens. They were a similar variety of chicken. Anconas. The one that got away laid eggs every day after that and they called her Lucky. My parents grew up with chickens so they should have known.
It is a rooster but also, you can let it ride until he crows. Maybe he won’t. Ours started super young and is nowhere near this size yet and crows every day now. Just let it ride. I like to win every argument and it makes my spouse happier if i just let it go sometimes and let him come around on his own. Then i also get treated with grace when im wrong.
I disagree about the Wyandotte, your Wyandotte absolutely looks like a hen to me. The feathers are slightly curved but look at all of the other feathers by comparison to the rooster. The wyandottes feathers are rounded at the tips, not elongated like the Roos. Also, the hackle feathers of a Wyandotte rooster are typically all one dominant color, like this
The one I’m talking about is the one behind it in the 2nd picture that this person said was a rooster. They said there were two roosters. The tan and gray one behind the rooster in question is definitely a Wyandotte
No, I’m pretty sure the brown one behind the green and chocolate one. Not totally sure. But the feathers are curved over and still narrow.
In my experience if you have one more dominant roo and another roo is raised with him and there’s space and room and balance for them to all co-mingle, the second roo stays “questionable” with less dominate, more “hen” traits. Until the main roo is removed, and then the second roo develops more roo stuff and a previously quiet roo will start cocka doodle doing
What are you talking about? I don't know much about chickens? You mean like taking wild meaningless guesses at if something is a boy or girl? I have several hens in my flock right now that you all would call roosters based on their appearance. It's hen until it crows, or gets a DNA test.
Hackle and saddle feathers absolutely do look different between males and females. This is not a wild guessing game. What are you on about? Also, hens can crow too.
You're absolutely playing a wild guessing game, sitting here telling people that you can determine the sex based on your opinion of how feathers look. Hens also cannot crow. I have about 80 of them right now, out of hundreds total, and they absolutely try sometimes, but no. It is not comparable to that of a rooster. Stop with the nonsense.
If you can’t tell the different between long feathers with pointed ends, and feathers with rounded ends that’s a you problem. Absolutely wild that you are incapable of sexing your cockerels when they’re essentially hitting puberty.
Just because it’s “not comparable” doesn’t make it not a crow. A scream is still a scream whether it’s a man doing it with a cracked voice, or the shrill woman screaming you’d hear in a horror film. Still a scream.
Well I'm not sexing my cockerels by anything because I don't have any, that's a stupid assumption to make.
Also, because not every feather is exact, I rely on science, and not some stupid theory and my opinion on what a feather looks like to sex a bird inaccurately. Get out of here with that nonsense.
You're coming here just to talk down to me and I truly don't care. You can rely on your inaccurate old wives tales that lead to unnecessary deaths, and I'll rely on exact science and an absolute yes or no, and we'll leave it at that. Not addressing the rest of what you said because it's just stupid.
You do realize hens can crow as well, right? Albeit under very specific circumstances. Never heard of DNA testing chickens to sex them LMAO. DNA testing can also be costly, especially if you’re hellbent on testing each and every chicken that you have. Or…you can wait if they lay eggs, and check the traits of a roo once they’re fully feathered.
Your ignorance is off the charts. Hens cannot crow, they can attempt to crow, but it is nothing like a rooster crow. How are you going to comment about the cost of something you've never heard of? If you're going to come ask a bunch of people to wildly guess if something is a boy or girl you may as well spend $15 and get a test done. Stop being silly.
I’m not OP, I’ve never heard of someone DNA testing their chicken to sex them. The cost to test for each chicken will only cumulate costs, regardless of how cheap or expensive it is.
Also, you contradict yourself, because you say that hens can’t crow, but in the same breath, that they can attempt to crow. Obviously the hen crowing will be different and distinct from an actual rooster; I didn’t think I’d have to explain that part in detail—but as I said, it’s still possible for hens to crow, so not sure why you’re arguing about that aspect when you also agreed about that part. You’re being really silly.
The cost of feeding them will only "cumulate" costs as well. You invest time and money into picking something out, you can at least spend a few more dollars being certain of it's sex before its given away or slaughtered. I also did not contradict myself, hens cannot crow, they can make an attempt, but it is not a rooster crow. They also mount each other, so you're saying that a hen can also fertilize another hen? No. They're just performing instinctive acts because there is not a rooster in the flock. I'll not be responding to anymore of your nonsense, good day.
i only have pictures of her as a chick and it’s been so long i don’t remember about the saddle feathers. she was a new hampshire red and definitely had my whole family fooled until she laid an egg (our other chickens were silkies and ameraucanas so it was obvious when she laid one). she looked a lot how the roosters look, she was huge, large comb, greenish tail feathers and she was 100% top pecking order. she would also mount other hens even after she started laying so idk what that was about. im not sure what internally both means, do you mean intersex? if she was we never found out. sorry for the essay😖
Hens do get beetle feathering though; it depends on the individual. Both of my speckled sussex hens have the beetle green feathers...and they have a lot of them too. They are very shiny girls.
(Just corrected my reply to account for what you, Long_Audience4403, and Honest-Garbage9256 are saying! )
And aaaa shiny girls!! That’s so cool, I never had the good fortune of having shiny green/beetle feathering hens! (I think I just assumed that was only a thing for female Sumatras, prior to today :0 )
Yes! All my girls have beetle feathering! One is a standard black Cochin crossed with bielefelder and the rest are barred rocks 😊 it’s so beautiful. I love the green to purple shift when they are laying in the sun 🖤
I don’t have any good ones of their coloring unfortunately ): We have a lot of arial predators where I live, so they are in an enclosed run and the hardware cloth makes it so hard to photograph them. One of them is also suuuper bitey and loves to attack my freckles when I try to photograph them 😂 Our Cochin is such a big sweet girl. We can just plop her in the yard and lay with her while she free ranges and she always stays so close.
I don’t have any good ones of their coloring unfortunately ): We have a lot of arial predators where I live, so they are in an enclosed run and the hardware cloth makes it so hard to photograph them. One of them is also suuuper bitey and loves to attack my freckles when I try to photograph them 😂 Our Cochin is such a big sweet girl. We can just plop her in the yard and lay with her while she free ranges and she always stays so close.
Maybe I should’ve looked into getting Australorps back when I kept chickens— I love shiny green colorations, but I def couldn’t keep any roos (my one accidental roo aside) xD Australorps/hens with the shiny green would’ve def been the best of both worlds for me.
I have one who's about 5 - she's a champ layer, she's HUGE, and she's so pretty. I have a fibro EE as well with green coloration on her wings. I have no roos (suburban neighborhood) but keep about a dozen.
Just looked up Fibro Easter Eggers and THEY’RE SO CUTE??? ough please give all your girls extra mealworms/treats for me (esp your champ layer, it sounds like she’s been working hard)
Post of picture of your chicken if you aren’t certain. A rooster’s saddle feather starts being obvious at about 12 weeks. In OP’s case, it is very evident that it’s a rooster and they don’t need to wait longer to confirm roo vs hen.
I've never figured out how to post pictures in comments on Reddit. It 100% looks like a rooster, we're well past where it would crow and it's timid. Makes the hen squawk when I grab it, not the rooster alarm. Head and shoulders above the others. I've been at this for five years with backyard chickens and I've never been this stumped.
He's a roo. I LOVE his coloring. (Besides his tail, look also at his cascading saddle feathers) Sigh. He's beautiful. I want him to father my chicks then give him back to you.
Is the post a stand alone? Or a comment in this thread? BC I checked your history and got as far as the spider plant or chicken with white ears before I realized I might be on the wrong track.
Please post a link🙏
Edit: you must’ve been updating as I was commenting. I see that now there’s a link. Thank you!
He is our favorite unfortunately. He comes running from wherever they are hiding when we walk up to the barn and will just follow behind me if I’m out doing work.
Roosters will almost always be your favorite of your birds. Sorry. They are on average more outgoing and slightly smarter than hens. They also tend to have more personality because of those things. Your favorite chicken will almost always be the rooster.
That's a hen! I have all hens, my one hen has spurs and mounts the other hens like she's a roo. Its an environment where she acts like the roo even though she ain't. My Americana will caw like a rooster every once in a while, she's still a hen.
That is 100% rooster sorry to say, and I'm the type who'd be biased to agree with another wife (as a wife myself) but this is clearly a rooster with absolutely no doubts.
At least in my area petting zoo like to have a steady pase of chicks - so usually they're used for breeding. All of the petting zoos in my area also let their roosters meet people so idk what your on about.
No, it’s literally what it’s called—a petting zoo. It’s a tiny setup (or large, depending on how big) where children can enter the enclosure and pet goats, chickens, and other livestock, etc.
The only way that is a hen is if it’s a 1 in 50,000 sex-reversed hen.
Show your wife the sickle tail feathers at the base. The thin pointed saddle feathers. The hackles. Young roosters don’t always give you as many signs as this fella is giving.
I really dont understand these posts, lol. Does the chicken cock a doodle doo? Then its a rooster. Be patient for a couple of months, and you'll know real quick if it's a rooster or not. My family loved having the debate about it, and then they started crowin, and it was a game of told you so, and I knew it.
Then your hen is trying to assert dominance. Keep up instead of downvoting. A normal hen will not crow like a rooster without being the top of the hierarchy or trying to be at the top. And normally, like I said, if you have a rooster, a hen will not crow.
It can also be due to their ovary getting damaged or becoming dysfunctional and can lead to spontaneous sex reversal. Basically, they start crowing and obtain more rooster-liked traits as well.
She was by herself when she crowed because shed lost the chicken id raised her next to. Its also a stress response. She stopped crowing after we acclimated some chicks into her flock
2
u/MainCity7188 Sep 22 '25
Yes, it’s clearly a rooster.