Hen Pecked Chap.

[di]

So much for Boys keeping the girls in line

Andi and our neighbour *dispatched three of our boys at the weekend(*I hate that word but couldn't think of a nicer one)...as the Buff Orpington is still not crowing(almost a year old!)they decided to leave him be....poor chap's not having the fun I'd have thought he would!If it wasn't for Roo(our Brahma girl that doesn't seem to fit in with any of the little gangs)I think he'd be bottom of the pecking order...he only has to look at food and one of the girls chases him away.
Is this common or have we just raised us a particularly pathetic boy?
Reason for asking is that we may have found him a home,but if he really is such a wimp I wonder if sending him to be bullied by a bunch of girls that he hasn't even got the advantage of growing up with would actually be a fate worse than the one he'd have otherwise.

[Flummery]

I get the impression the Orpies are such softies that they will be bullied in mixed flocks whatever happens. A bloke near us has all Orpingtons - the only way he cold cope!

[di]

The odd thing is that we have two BO girls,at times they can be the worst culprits!(I'd also heard what softies they are)
To look at him you wouldn't think he'd let anyone/thing get the better of him...sadly in reality though he's just a big wimp!

[janeyo]

maybe he's a gay chicken who doesn't quite fit the masculine mold?! Or is that not a very pc word ? lol

[Snadger]

maybe he's a gay chicken who doesn't quite fit the masculine mold?! Or is that not a very pc word ? lol

I thought my Faverolle cockerel was gay ............until today. He appears to have just found out what its for and has given his laydees a real run around!

[RichmondHens]

Orpingtons do have a reputation for being a bit wussy and therefore susceptible to being bullied. However your boy may just need a bit more time to get his male hormones into gear now the other boys have gone. In a month or so I'm sure you'll find he is behaving more normally.

[di]

Unfortunately we won't be able to keep him once he's making a noise.A friend has said they'd be interested in having him...I guess I need to find out what breeds they already have and whether we think it would be fair on him.
I'm dreading having to get rid of him though as he seems to be Roo's only friend.

[RichmondHens]

Of course he might not turn out to be a boy after all, and then you could keep him. Are you absolutely certain he's a boy? Orpingtons are very tricky to sex after all!! :-)

[Nicos]

Well...if he is a boy, the fact that he's not crowing indicates his hormones aren't surging away at full blast yet- then he'd get more confidence!
Does 'he' leave the toilet seat up??

[di]

Don't think there's any doubting he's a boy.
It's wierd,although they are notoriously tricky to sex,I sort of knew when they were just a few days old.(would never have trusted my judgement though)
He's almost a year old now,so you can imagine he's got all the features...bigger feet(),more prominent comb etc and when he had his other boys around he'd join in with the piggy back rides!
The one we hatched later on the year,we were convinced was a boy but she's turned out to be a girl(or a boy that the other boys found attractive