In a previous post I talked about my sister's new chicks. I went to visit her Friday afternoon and she took me out to her hen house to show me her hens. She was disturbed because that morning she had heard what sounded a lot like a rooster coming from her backyard. So, I needed to take a look to help her decide if this particular hen is really a hen. Now the females of this breed have a larger comb than most breeds, but this chicken has also started chasing the others around the run. The chicken walked, or rather struted, up to the fence and seemed to look up at me with a challenge. I took one look at it and decided it must be a rooster with the amount of attitude in his stride. Now, I really don't know much about chickens, but I told her I knew some people who do. So, to all you who know chickens, is this a rooster or a hen? We would really like to know.
(Sorry the pictures are so bad. I only had my camera phone with me.)
8 comments:
I'm not an expet either, but I would say it's a rooster, although the comb looks a bit small to me.
Patrick would be the one to tell you. He's an expert on fowl.
Er, there I go again, publishing without proofing! Erg!
We use to have chickens like that.....it's a hen......with attitude.....LOL! Seriously it really is a hen!
Lots of hens are aggressive. How old is it? Some people sex their chickens by size of feet but the only sure way is to squeeze the cloaca when it's about 8 weeks old. But it looks like a hen to me.
Squeeze the what?! It's right around 9-10 weeks old.
Juanita, the cloaca is the all-purpose "back passage" where they pee and poop out of and lay eggs. Is there another rooster in the chicken house? He'll tell you if this chicken is a boy or a girl when they start fighting. But my hunch is that it's just a pushy hen. Call it Hillary Clinton and if it turns out to be a rooster, eat it.
Hello,
I'm Juanita's sister, I think that it must be a hen. It still is an awfully noisy one though. It loves to do some kind of crowing first thing in the early morning and since we are in town, well I think Hillary will get ousted no mater what. Thanks for the imput!
I'd say fire up the BBQ ... lol
Post a Comment