4 weeks and I'm confident I have at least two roos!

I have four Rhode Island Reds that are a month old. I know I've been told to wait but I think the differences are becoming very obvious what do you guys think? The last RIR picture is the same green banded bird but a side shot of comb.

Also included are the 2 golden Comet chicks I got a week later. One is black I'm even starting to think that the black one might be a boy too. A week younger than the others and comb already pretty red. I honestly don't know anything about little black mystery chick though....

1 - pullet on left, roo on right
2 - leaning toward pullet, but that could go either way
3 - left needs a pic of the head, right pullet
4 - pullet
5 - likely roo - when the look that young but have that much red comb, I usually think roo
6 - pullet

Battlepants said:

1 - pullet on left, roo on right
2 - leaning toward pullet, but that could go either way
3 - left needs a pic of the head, right pullet
4 - pullet
5 - likely roo - when the look that young but have that much red comb, I usually think roo
6 - pullet

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#3 is same as #1. Every chick becomes super busy when it comes time for pictures and refuses to stay still
# 2& 6 the same. Trying so hard for a good picture

I'm thinking first picture RIR on right, #2 &#6 (same bird), and black chick are all roos .

I'm no good at the gender game at that age. For people who cannot keep roo's, or just don't want any roo's, I would suggest getting sex-linked chickens and not having to worry about it. I prefer the sex-linked ISA Brown chickens for their egg production, but there are other choices as well.

The chicken world seems definitely biased against the male of the species. Short life for most of the guys in the run.

LizGio said:

Also included are the 2 golden Comet chicks I got a week later. One is black

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Golden Comets are not black. So that one was mis-identified.

gtaus said:

I'm no good at the gender game at that age. For people who cannot keep roo's, or just don't want any roo's, I would suggest getting sex-linked chickens and not having to worry about it. I prefer the sex-linked ISA Brown chickens for their egg production, but there are other choices as well.

The chicken world seems definitely biased against the male of the species. Short life for most of the guys in the run.

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I'm doing all that I can for them. But honestly I don't have enough hens to keep all the roos. I'm actually not supposed to have any. I called the township and asked them they said as long as my neighbors don't complain I'm going to keep them until they become a little bit more mature and start crowing and/or harassing my girls then we will figure out a rehoming situation. Preferably no kill unless of course they turn out to be big turds.

NatJ said:

Golden Comets are not black. So that one was mis-identified.

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Yes, I'm aware. Nobody knows what happened since they were all hatched in the same batch and it was the only one lol

LizGio said:

I'm actually not supposed to have any [roosters].

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Oh, I understand. I think some people want to have chickens for the eggs, but then they get a roo that they cannot keep, and all of a sudden, they either have to cull the young roo or try to rehome it (not so easy). The new chicken owner might not have thought about those issues when buying some cute fluffly baby chicks. Bad enough you have to deal with a baby roo that you can't keep, but it's also one less chicken you thought you were going to have in your backyard flock of laying hens.

So, I often suggest just buying some sex-linked breeds so you know that you will not get any roos. Having said that, I don't necessarily follow my own advice. But, I have raised lots of meat birds and don't feel bad about having to harvest a young roo for the table.

gtaus said:

I'm no good at the gender game at that age. For people who cannot keep roo's, or just don't want any roo's, I would suggest getting sex-linked chickens and not having to worry about it. I prefer the sex-linked ISA Brown chickens for their egg production, but there are other choices as well.

The chicken world seems definitely biased against the male of the species. Short life for most of the guys in the run.

Click to expand...

I'd forgot to mention we hatched our RIRs