Lady Looks Like a Dude . . . 6 Month Old Rhode Island Red

Remember Lucy?

Rhode Island Red Chick

Well, this sweet little bundle now looks like this:

Lucy or Lucius?-2

And we’re not sure if she’s really a “she” or a “he”.  In fact, we’ve been so confused this last month, that my husband has taken to calling it “Pat”.

Here are our reasons why we think she’s a hen:

  • She was sold as a sexed pullet when we got her.
  • She isn’t noticeably bigger than the other hens.
  • She doesn’t crow.
  • Her feathers aren’t the obvious dark green on the tail end and around her neck.
  • She doesn’t stand as vertically as most roosters I’ve seen.

Here are our reasons why we think she might be a rooster:

  • “He” hasn’t laid any eggs yet.  And with such a developed comb and wattle, we thought “she’d” be the first.
  • “He” is starting to aggressively grab Dottie by the neck – she usually gets away quickly so we’ve never seen a mount.
  • Just look at the tail feathers that might be beginning to curve over.
  • “He” has quite a pronounced comb and wattle.
  • “He” isn’t as friendly as the other hens.

If you want to weigh in, check out these pictures I grabbed below and let me know what you think in the comments section!

7 Comments

  1. I would say hen. Roosters at this age will be starting to grow little spurs in their legs… would be just small buds at this point.

  2. I feel your pain! We bought 4 ‘hens’ not long ago with the guarantee “I’m 90% sure they’re hens”. They weren’t! Check the legs – ours started growing little spurs – that, and the aggression was the giveaway! =)

  3. We did also recently see a bunch of red hens that had huge combs, they looked like cockerels but we’re laying like crazy. Chickens are neat!

  4. How old is s/he? She looks like a “she”, we have two that just hit 6 months and one has just laid her first egg and the other has just started to crow. Maybe she’s just a late bloomer!

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