How do you tell if it's a cock bird?

[Sue]

I posted before, worried that my lovely Rose might in fact be a Rodney. She/he is 20 weeks old and the comb is reddening up beautifully. One of the other hen keepers on the allotment said that's def a boy.
Asking why it's because of the tail feathers - they are longer than the other hens, Rose is black with a beautiful green and blue sheen - another reason apparently. She has no spurs and as far as I know isn't crowing and being one of the two newbies is firmly at the bottom of the pecking order. Of the two newbies she is the bolder one and always testing the limits whereas for Fanny its anything for a quiet life.

Do I just have to wait and see if she lays? I'd hate to have to get rid of her, we're not allowed to keep cockerels and awful to have to introduce a new replacement bird on her own.

He said there was a pill to stop crowing????

Ps did try to upload a jpeg file for the first time but it failed, don't know why.

Sue

[Snadger]

..........................He said there was a pill to stop crowing????



Sue

There is but it's not actually a pill...............it's more a very small piece of lead and you put it in there ear!

PS We aren't allowed cockerels at lottie either but I've got three stashed there anyway.............

[di]

According to our secretary,we're not even allowed cock chicks not crowing on ours...he didn't hear me mention ours!

Don't know how I feel about the lil lead bullet thing...can't help but feel it's cruel depriving the chappie of his voice!.....but that said,is it any worse than our intentions of Christmas dinner?
Sorry,I can't recollect your last thread about Rosy...is she the same breed as your others?
Our first hatch we had a real mix of breeds,some it was obvious really early on,yet others,at fourteenish weeks the difference is still only very slight.

[frias]

According to our secretary,we're not even allowed cock chicks not crowing on ours...he didn't hear me mention ours!

Don't know how I feel about the lil lead bullet thing...can't help but feel it's cruel depriving the chappie of his voice!.....but that said,is it any worse than our intentions of Christmas dinner?
Sorry,I can't recollect your last thread about Rosy...is she the same breed as your others?
Our first hatch we had a real mix of breeds,some it was obvious really early on,yet others,at fourteenish weeks the difference is still only very slight.

I think the lead in his head deprives him of his life not just his voice!

[di]

I'd had a wine or too...meant to say plastic!!!

A chap at the lottie was telling us about it,apparently it's put in the back of their neck so they can't tilt their head back to crow...still think it's depriving them of doing what they're meant to do!

[frias]

Someone after my own heart. All my evening posts are done after a wine or 2 or 3 or ....

[MaureenHall]

My friend and I had a discussion ages ago with Lynda. We wondered if making some sort of a hood, similar to the ones falconers use on their birds would stop the cockerels crowing too early in the morning. Having thought long and hard about it, and judging the size of Basil's head as well as his strength, (Rowan's too come to that!) I think I'll pass on that idea