How to Tell if My 8 Week Old Chicken Is a Rooster

Are you wondering if you have a rooster in your flock? If so, you're not alone. As baby chicks start to grow up, it's not uncommon to wonder about the sex of your chickens even if you chose from the pullet brooder at the store or ordered pullets directly from the hatchery. Here's my personal story with getting an accidental rooster and how you can tell what you've got one (or three) in your flock.

Roopert as a young rooster.

Accidentally Getting a Rooster

It all started when we were buying chicks from the local feed store. I was picking out two Buff Orpingtons. I had already put one in the box. I picked up the next and its wing was covered in poop. The salesperson apologized for the poop and suggested I pick another chick. The poop didn't bother me and it didn't concern me with baby chick health, so I'm not sure why I did this, but I put the poopy one back and grabbed a nice big healthy chick. I even remarked to the salesperson, "Wow! This one's really big!" He agreed and I left the store happy with my choices.

A couple of weeks later, I started to get suspicious. Kate, as the chick was called, was bigger than her counterparts and she developed her comb and wattles fast. They were much larger than everyone else's and they were redder.

I began to wonder if I was a statistical "victim" of a chick sexing mistake.

One morning, my husband and I were in the garage putting the chicks out for the day and we both froze in place as we heard a faint but distinct "cock-a-doodle-doo." We stood still and waited to see if it would happen again. Sure enough, my suspicions were confirmed. We had a Buff Orpington rooster!

A name change was definitely in order, so Kate became Roopert. He eventually fathered two more roosters and we've not been without a rooster in our flock since then.

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How to Tell a Rooster from a Hen

The best way to tell if you have a rooster or a hen is by watching your bird's behavior and body development. However, these signs are not 100% accurate.

• Roosters will be larger than hens.

• The combs and wattles on a rooster will be darker pink and they will grow faster and larger than a hen's combs and wattle.

• Roosters will be more bold and friendly early on while hens are less friendly. (This reverses with age.)

• If you have more than one rooster, they may chest bump and challenge each other.

• Hackle feathers (located on the neck) for roosters are longer, more pointed and narrow. A hen's hackle feathers are more rounded and oval-shaped.

• Roosters have long, skinny saddle feathers located where the back meets the tail. These start to develop around 12 weeks of age.

• Roosters will start to crow around four months of age.

• Roosters will have thicker legs and may develop spurs early in their development.

The only way to be fully sure if you have a rooster is to see whether your bird eventually lays an egg or not. The reason for this is that rooster rules are made to be broken. Sometimes hens will have large combs and wattles. Sometimes they will crow. Hens can be extremely friendly. Hens will chest bump each other to establish the pecking order.

Roopert as a fully-grown rooster.

How Did I Get a Rooster?

If you incubate eggs at home, you're almost guaranteed to get a rooster. Statistics say that 50% of a clutch will be roosters.

Hatcheries are usually about 90% accurate with their sexing and some like Meyer Hatchery, guarantee 100% accuracy. Because hatcheries like return customers, your best bet is to order directly.

The feed store is where I ran into problems. This is not to say that buying chicks from a feed store is bad, it's just wise to be cautious. Here's why. The feed stores get all their chicks shipped from the hatchery. They are taken out of their containers and put into the store brooders. Hopefully into the right brooders with the right signs. Then people, like me, shop those brooders. Chicks are picked up and inspected during the buying process. Some are put into boxes to take home, others are put back into the brooders. If you have brooder of Buff Orpington pullets next to a brooder of straight run Buff Orpingtons, it's easy enough to set a chick or two back into the wrong brooder. There are lots of places for unintentional error at the feed store.

Two hens establishing a pecking order through chest-bumping and feather raising.

Is There a Full-Proof Way to Know What I'm Getting?

Probably the best way to be guaranteed whether you're getting a hen or rooster is to buy sex-linked chickens. Sex-linked chickens are cross-bred, so at hatch, you can tell their sex by their coloring.

How to Tell if My 8 Week Old Chicken Is a Rooster

Source: https://www.pamsbackyardchickens.com/2012/05/omg-its-roo.html

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