My friend Jackie has had her two “new” girls for two months now. As they are maturing she is beginning to wonder if Shadow, a speckledy, is a cockerel. I have always thought that Shadow had big feet but am not familiar with the breed so wasn’t sure if they just do have big feet.
Now Jackie has heard Shadow give out a call which made her think that Shadow may be a cockerel and also noticed that her neck feathers are quite pointed. Jackie asked me over today to see what I thought.
I think that Shadow may well be a cockerel but on the other hand we may be wrong. I had the instinct that my Poppy was a cockerel and I was right. Poppy also gave out a call that made me think this. Poppy also had big feet and an upright way of holding himself and he didn’t like anyone new coming into the run and looked as if he would fly at visitors. See “meet the flock” on my side bar to see photos of Poppy when I began to realize he was a cockerel.
With Poppy I had three chickens of the same breed for comparison. Jackie’s chickens are all different breeds so it’s more difficult to compare. My instinct still says that those big feet are a cockerels though.
Is Shadow a cockerel?
Bluebell
This is Bluebell who is the same age as Shadow.
Shadow and Bonnie
Clover
Shadow
Is Shadow a “he” or a “she”?
Shadow is a really striking looking bird and my favourite of Jackie’s chooks because of the beautiful feather patterns.
We have a plan. Jackie is going to ring the farm we got Shadow and Bluebell from and see if we can take Shadow back to them for their opinion as they are more experienced. If Shadow turns out to be “she” we will very happily bring her back home. If Shadow turns out to be “he” we will ask if we can leave him there and choose two more hens.
This way Jackie would be introducing two which is always better than one and she would be happy to have a slight increase in flock size.
If the farm agrees to this we plan to go on Friday. If we have to leave Shadow at the farm we will both be sorry to see “him” go but Jackie, like me, can’t have a cockerel. It wouldn’t be fair on close neighbours.
I will take my camera on Friday and continue the story. Either way, Shadow is truly beautiful!
Click here to see the history of my flock.
What a lovely post and photos. It will be interesting either way as I really need to know now rather than spend my life checking for changes in Shadow.
shadow is certainly stunning and I will be sorry to lose her/him , but if Shadow is this size at 20 weeks how big at a year ?
I know exactly how you feel because I have been there.
Unfortunately in most of the photos of your chooks together, each had one blurred face. Luckily though some of the ones of Shadow were good. It will be good to find out one way or another.
This story will continue!
Shadow sure looks like a hen to me. Except for the very last photo. It kind of looks like saddle feathers to me. But I am FAR from an expert. I’ll be curious to hear what the farm says.
Me too. It’s kind of “here we again!”. It’s so difficult at this age to know and the more you look the more you keep swaying one way then the other. The farm isn’t far from us though so it seems best to find out sooner rather than later if possible.