Please please tell me I'm hearing things!

[MrsC]

Sat in the kitchen having our morning brew when we heard a clear 'Cock a doodle do!' We both looked at each other and then heard it 3 more times

As you know of the 3 bantam chicks I brought home last year, 1 dies shortly after, the other was a cockeral and poor 'Dolly' who's left can't be one surely, age around 5 and half to 6 months. Attached are some pics

[dexterdoglancashire]

Sat in the kitchen having our morning brew when we heard a clear 'Cock a doodle do!' We both looked at each other and then heard it 3 more times

As you know of the 3 bantam chicks I brought home last year, 1 dies shortly after, the other was a cockeral and poor 'Dolly' who's left can't be one surely, age around 5 and half to 6 months. Attached are some pics

Sense of de ja vu? DDL and Christmas eve?

[RedThorn]

Sorry MrsC, no idea, don't know the breed well enough. But do know the sinking feeling when you hear the sound

[Suechooks]

Does s/he tread the other hens or strut his/her stuff as it were? The last pic looks a bit "cocky" but as I have virtually no experience of cockerels (had 2 by mistake last year ) I'm not going to be much help Sorry.
Maybe Richmond or Bramble or someone who knows about these things will be along soon.

[RichmondHens]

Hi Mrs C. Afraid to say the saddle feathers give him away. They droop down either side of the tail - most clearly seen in the 3rd pic. Sorry.

[MrsC]

What I can't understand is that they came 'from the same batch so to speak' how can the cockeral who was so defintely a cockeral and looked it and yet she looks nothing like him. If that is the case they must be weeks apart yet they weren't when i first got them. Can't believe it! He or she has no wattles etc? What's going on?

[RichmondHens]

If cocks are kept together there will always be a dominant one, same as within a group of hens. The underlings will develop more slowly and show their true colours later than the dominant male.

Maybe you have just been unlucky in getting at least two males (perhaps the one that died was also male?). He also just be be a late developer. It is not unknown though for chickens to change sex, although rare. I had a Welsummer I was convinced was a cock for a long time (dark breast feathers etc), then he slowly started to look more and more female. We called him Half Cock for a long time. He (she) is now 2 years old, fully female, and a good layer!

[MrsC]

If cocks are kept together there will always be a dominant one, same as within a group of hens. The underlings will develop more slowly and show their true colours later than the dominant male.

Maybe you have just been unlucky in getting at least two males (perhaps the one that died was also male?). He also just be be a late developer. It is not unknown though for chickens to change sex, although rare. I had a Welsummer I was convinced was a cock for a long time (dark breast feathers etc), then he slowly started to look more and more female. We called him Half Cock for a long time. He (she) is now 2 years old, fully female, and a good layer!

Strange you said that, because since Trevor the cockeral has left, then Dolly (he or she) has grown rapidly? Do you think that is what is is?

[RichmondHens]

Very likely. In my experience when you have more than one cock sharing a territory (or pen) then you get either a) they mature at about the same rate and then fight like the devil, or b) you get a situation where one takes the dominant role and the others become subserviant, probably as a way of avoiding being beaten up.

The underling usually finds a way round it though. My bantam enclosure currently has 3 boys in, covering 15 girls. I caught one of the underlings getting sneaky nookie in the henhouse the other day when Boss Man wasn't looking!

[frias]

Oh dear. Well hens don't 'cock a doodle do' so Dolly must be a boy. I've also heard before of a hen that changed sex. I'm wondering if perhaps the person who sold them to you knew they were boys. I've never seen a Polish in the flesh so don't know if they can be sexed at hatch. My Wesummers were easy to sex on day one but once they were a few weeks old it was impossible to tell for while until the boys grew their beautiful tail feathers.

[MrsC]

Oh buggar!

[RedThorn]

no...nookie

[MrsC]

no...nookie

No.....noisy and my neighbours were starting to complain about the last one! I would love to have kept him but, I've got to live next to them!

[MrsC]

Don't think he/she is a true Polsh, sorry to go on, but don't know why at 5/6months old there are no wattles etc? Is it wishful thinking?

[its hilly]

If it crowing its definately wishful thinking Im afraid. At 5 months some of my boys (not Polish) were a bit either/or but once the crow appears they soon 'butched up'