Introducing Roxy

[SMS6]

well we will all just sit back and wait patiently to see what comes first an egg or a cockle doodle do


LOL

[RichmondHens]

well if not I will swap her for one of her sisters so may well still get blue eggs.

Would you not have expected us to have heard a crow by now if it's a Cockeral? Yesterday she/he was having a really good shout but it was still very buk buk buk buk chiiicckkken just like the other girls do and the others don't seem to treat Roxy with the respct you'd expect of a cockeral - LOL

Yes I would expect to hear a crow if it is a cock at 21 weeks. But boys get bigger a lot earlier than girls so if it is a boy then it is likely to be younger than 21 weeks. A 16 week old cock can look a lot like a 21 week old pullet ..............

The other thing is that cocks crow to state their territory. If there are no other males in the vicinity there will be no urgency to start making that statement.

As I sit here typing this I can hear my lot all going at it hammer and tongs .......... there are about 30 cocks here at the moment!!!

[Glutton4...]

I think mine started early because they had competition.

[dave_norm_smith]

I'm sure you chicken guru's would know but would a mirror fool the bird into thinking there was competition and crow or do they need the sound to stimulate them in the first place? (Just thinking out loud really????)

[SMS6]

The breeder was very confident with the age, he knew when they had all hatched. You do realise that I'm going to be out in the garden this weekend either trying imitate a cockle doodle do or with a recording of one just to see if we get a reaction - LOL

[jessmorris]

Ho-ho! Sounds a brilliant weekend to me!
I'm going to be washing and blow drying boys and girls ready for a show ;-)

[jessmorris]

PS My boys legs also went very, very red as they 'matured', and they had a few goes at cockadoodledooing before they could do it properly. The ones still out with their ma were much later to do so than those who(m?) I had separated....they were jumping on the pullets when quite young tho' which really gave them away.....

[its hilly]

In my last hatch I had two who had long top feathers like that at 14 weeks. Only thing was the sexes are quite different colours from the start so I knew they were girls, if it hadn't been for that I would have sworn they were boys.
They are sitting on the lawn at the mo, 22 weeks, quite definately girls, but still not in lay yet. The pure breeds I hatched late last year didn't lay until spring, so I think these may do the same

[SMS6]

well I played a few rooster crowing clips to them yesterday from UTube and Roxy didn't show any more interest in the noise than the other 3 did. They all stopped and listened but not an attempt to crow along from Roxy.

Today when we got home and I went to see what eggs we had - there was the usual one from Ginger in the nest box and then I spotted another one in the main part of the house - it's not a blue egg but it just has to be Roxy's first surely?

My Maran isn't laying at present because she moulted recently and my Sussex wouldn't go back to this size egg even though she hasn't layed for a few days would she?

[RichmondHens]

Blue egg layers normally have bluey green earlobes - your pic doesn't show this so even if he/she is a girl I suspect he/she may lay normal coloured eggs. Don't rule out the possibility though that one of the others has produced this, it may be a "wind egg" ie an egg without a yolk commonly produced at beginning or end of lay but can be produced at other times. So it could come from any of them really, except the moulting one. I have a beautiful tiny little blue/green wind egg laid by one of my cream legbars in late spring which I have kept on my window sill ever since. It has dried out naturally over time without the need for blowing it.

[SMS6]

Okay I won't get too excited yet then - LOL. I don't think any of my girls are at the end of their egg laying days yet though and they all usually use the nest boxes. We shall keep a close eye on who goes where for the next few days

[baldrick]

Hope she is a girl for you x

[SMS6]

No further progress to report, although we did have a perfectly formed soft shelled egg this morning in the main part of the house - which had the most enormous yolk. Mind you that could have been from our white Sussex Babs because she's been known to do that over night before especially after a few days off. She had layed a normal shelled yesterday already but that was her first for about 5 days so this one could have followed too quickly for a proper shell.

So the mystery of Roxy the Hen/Cockerel continues

[baldrick]

my 89 year old uncle was telling me his dad won best cockerel at a show once but he was then disqualified as SHE started laying in the show cage!

[SMS6]

Well guys looks like you were right, Roxy is indeed a Cockerel. My partner said he thought the shouting was rather more crow like this morning and then this afternoon there was some very unladylike behaviour going on as he tried to mate Ginger. Ah well, back he goes and we'll start all over again with one of his sisters.

I guess the tiny egg was a wind egg from Babs after all.