Gender Confusion
Remember when we were so excited to have our first rooster maturing? Ha ha, good trick on us! We don't have any roosters. Yes we ordered some, and were shipped two chicks marked as cockerels, but they must have been training a new person that day on how to sex chicks because they are both hens!
How do we know? Well, let's start with the fact that each hen lays one egg each day. We thought we had ten hens and two roosters until Christmas day when we collected 12 eggs - what a present! Add to it that neither of the "roosters" ever gave off a cock-a--doodle and there was never any signs of mating among the birds . . . Plus one day I saw what I thought was a rooster, reached out a hand to it and it squatted! Sure sign that it's a hen.
Oh well. There's no reason to be upset about having two less roosters and two more hens. The hens produce eggs with or without roosters. They'll just never have chicks, which isn't so bad for now. And hens don't crow early in the morning when you're trying to sleep. Besides, we got these two hens on discount because roosters are cheaper than hens!
Posted by Susan at January 1, 2010 
Categories: Poultry
Tags: mating egg chick sex crowing gender hen cockerel chicken rooster
Categories: Poultry
Tags: mating egg chick sex crowing gender hen cockerel chicken rooster
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