Omlet Smart Autodoor - New in box

[jenkey]

Our buff orpington is 7 months old. She is huge (as expected) but has recently become more and more agressive. She has always been second from bottom in the pecking order but is now trying to become top bird. Pansy our light sussex used to be number 2 bird but last week we discovered her with one eye closed, the vet said it had been injured and we are now thinking it was the buff. Pansy is on baytril but her personality has totally changed, she is last to leave the henhouse in the mornings and is really nervy. She was such a strong friendly bird. Buff has now starting picking on Charlotte our RIR, stopping her from feeding. When I let them out to free range she chases them all around and has even tried to mount them.

 

Is there a chance she could be a boy and we haven't noticed? she has never laid an egg, has short heel spurs, a huge dangly wattle and large comb, she is very heavy , does not have curved hackle feathers, is not cock-a-doodle-doing but makes a different noise from the other girls, a kind of loud 'bark'.

 

I just don't know what to do, let them sort out the pecking order or remove 'her' now as she is making the others so miserable.

[Snowy]

She does sound suspiciously like a 'he' I believe orps are slow to mature.

Can you post some pics?

[jenkey]

I hope the following photos are not too big, they are coming up quite small on my screen but I don't want to clog up the board.

Edited November 17, 2011 by Guest

[jenkey]

ok, so that didn't work so well as you can only see a bit of the buff orpington. I'm going to try again.

 

[jenkey]

In this one you can see the nubbins of her heel spurs, they are now quite a bit longer probably about 1.5cm

 

 

Actually 'she' has really grown a lot since the end of september. Her comb and wattle in particular.

Edited November 17, 2011 by Guest

[Snowy]

Try resizing them in photobucket to medium

[Redwing]

I'm 95% sure its a male but happy to be corrected if anyone else wants to take a punt

 

My reasoning is that the neck feathers are pointed and also quite a different shade, normally found in males, also and more telling are the curved 'sickle' feathers curving down on the bird's sides either side of the base of the tail - you dont get those on females

 

in those pics the comb and wattles dont look big enough for me to think it was certainly male but if as you say they have grown quite a bit since I'd say taken with the spurs (which arent always exclusively male) and the mounting of the other chooks (again not always only males that do this) you probably do have a cockerel on your hands

[Snowy]

Hm, hard to tell from those pics, but the comb and wattles are already impressive, so if they are even bigger now, I'd say boy, sorry

[jenkey]

aarg! so what to do! my 5 year old loves 'princess aurora'! I might try and take some newer photos tomorrow but am going with the consensus here, I've had a feeling for a couple of months..

[Egluntyne]

The hackles look rather pointy ... and from the hint of a 'sweep' to the tail ... I'm guessing he won't be laying eggs. Sorry.

[jenkey]

I've been out this morning with the 'girls' and it's like the most obvious thing in the world now - he is clearly a rooster. He's been really bothering Charlotte our RIR today, treading her and pinning her to the ground. She then gets pecked afterwards by the little Welsummer who seems to be the little submissive side-kick.

 

My lovely husband has been out before work this morning dividing the run so the girls have a break but there is still bedtime to think of and then a decision as to what to do with the big guy. He is a really handsome and strong bird and I hate the thought of him becoming someone's dinner.

[Patricia W]

Wait till he crows and see how he bothers you or the neighbours.

 

If you do decide to keep him, a cockerel in the flock can be lovely ( once the teenage hormones settle). If he bothers the girls too much you can get poultry saddles for them. I wouldn't be without my Phillip ( and neither would our lovely neighbours). He finds food for the girls and then calls them over and protects them from anything he sees as a threat. Now they aren't laying for the winter he doesn't bother them by any treading so all is peaceful.

[jenkey]

here are some photos taken this morning. We are taking him to the breeder we got him from tomorrow to get a difinitive verdict but would be interested to see what you think.

[jenkey]

sorry, I can see the photos are big again. I have resized them on photobucket down to size small (120x120) so don't know what else to do.

[Egluntyne]

Try resizing them to 320 x 240.

[jenkey]

It looks as if our 6 month old buff orpington hen is in fact a boy - we will find out for sure tomorrow when we take him to the breeder to have a look. I have been told that once the 'teenage' hormones are over he will settle down and not bother the girls so much. He hasn't started crowing yet and is well loved by us all as we have had him since a tiddly 8 week old chick. We initially thought of re-homing him but I would love to say he could stay. Our garden is big and the chickens are approx 15 metres from the house but it is an ordinary urban street and I think the neighbours would not appreciate crowing. I guess I've answered my own question..

 

I guess it's one of the unhappier sides of chicken keeping because we haven't had birds before and were told he was female so until he started acting like a boy we had no reason to suspect anything but the breeder only offers to swap them up to 6 weeks after purchase - no way we could have known at that stage.

Edited November 18, 2011 by Guest

[not enough chickens]

if i was you i would keep him and wait for the neighbours to complain and then think of a solution, you dont wanna rehome him and always wonder if they would have been ok with it, i have cockerals , luckly i live in the middle of nowhere, but my boys dont really crow that much anyway, they seem t have a bout at about 11 and when i bring them treats, its not constant , your neighbours probably have dogs........ whats the difference from them barking ?

[memphisto]

It's not unrealistic

 

We live in an area where I have one direct neighbour and 2 close (but not that close), however, someone over in the more residential area of our village has a Welsummer Cockerel and he crows twice (if that) in the morning and once in the evening, it's a lovely sound, our neighbours like it, they asked if our girls crowed like that I actually hear their girls and thei egg chorus more than the cockerel.

 

I wouldn't want to have a cockerel myself but in your shoes, I don't know if I could get rid of one

[sjp]

I live in the middle of a 1930's build estate and have had a Boris best part of 18 months(hatched by last years broody) he's been crowing nearly 12 months and he's produced 6 or 7 sons this year up until last Saturday I had Boris and 2 of his sons crowing, eldest is resting in the freezer,the other crower is still to young (16 weeks old)for the pot but has been crowing since he was 8 weeks old his brother (no'7) luckerly hasn't found his voice yet

so far no one has complained about them crowing

[Tweety]

If the breeder sold him to you as a female, and it has only just become apparent that she is in fact a he, I think you should insist that they take him back - and any decent breeder should do so without hesitation. It is their fault, after all!

Having said that, whether or not it is unrealistic to keep him depends a lot on the individual cockerel and the views of your neighbours. I have 3 bantam boys, 2 of whom have sweet little crows and the other has a piercing shriek - but they hardly crow at all and our nearest neighbour, about 100 yards away, hasn't heard them. I keep them shut in the eglu until a civilised time in the morning, just in case, but otherwise they don't present any type of nuisance during the day.

[surfer_chicken]

You won't really know until he starts crowing properly. Some people have cockerels that will only crow a few times a day; whereas others (like mine) start crowing early in the morning (5am at the moment, 2 hours before dawn!!) and will carry on crowing on a fairly regular basis throughout the day. Even if he only crows during the daylight it doesn't mean he won't annoy the neighbours. My brother works nights and I know that he would not appreciate nearby cockerel crowing when he is trying to sleep!

 

It's not totally unrealistic, there's just a lot to take into consideration.

[migsy]

I live in a suburban area. The local priest keeps a cockerel or two with his hens as I understand he breeds. He doesn't have a big garden and is surrounded by other houses and my boys' school. He's had them for a few years now so I assume "Ooops, word censored!"ody complained. I suppose it depends on the bird and the neighbours so you could give it a try but be prepared to act quickly if someone complains.

[jenkey]

thank you for the replies - I really want to wait and see what he's like as he gets older but not sure if that would then make it worse for the children if he then had to go. He is such a handsome boy and at the moment he is ok with most of the girls but is really bothering Charlotte our R.I.R who is about half the size of him. When he treads her, afterwards she is just flattened and lies there for about 30 seconds kind of wimpering. It's funny what life throws at you isn't? I guess time will tell.

[miller30]

Buff orpingtons can be a nightmare to sex its a long story but ive been sold a few as girls as others have said if he was sold to you as a girl then the breeder should take him back ive never had a problem with taking them back its just heartbreaking when you have reared them for 6 months and thought they were girls how old is your boy mine were about 19 weeks old before showing any signs of being boys and they didnt crow but they had big comb and wattles,saddle and hackle feathers that almost appeared over night goodluck if you decide to keep him leanne

[Chicken shack]

I have a cockerel Harvey. He does crow after 7am in the morning and occasionally during the day. Although I have a large garden he is quite close to my neighbours houses. Their gardens back onto the side of mine. I have spoken to them all and asked them to tell me if he disturbs them. So far it is only my OH who has moaned. I would keep him and if you are on freindly terms with your neighbours do as I have done.