Difference between Cockerel or hen? Please help

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Hi all :)

We recently bought our first six chicks of Light Sussex. They are now 12 weeks old and this morning when I let them out of their coop one of them started crowing :shock: even though the women we bought them off told us they were all hens :(

The dilema is now that we cannot point out which are cockerels and which are the hens :? we know that there is at least one cockerel but there could be as many as three in our little flock which will have to head for the pot.

Is there anyway we could tell which ones are cockerels and hens, apart from the obvious when the crowing starts? We tried to search the internet for life stages of the Light Sussex in pictures so we could differentiate between the sexes but not with much success :oops:

Any help would be really appreciated in giving us clues how to separate the cockerels from the hens as we do not want to prolong the cockerels life any longer as needed.

Thank you :)
 
If she sold them to you as hens then she should exchange any cockerels for hens or refund you your money. I would contact her and explain the situation maybe you could take them all back for him to look at? At 12 weeks the boys will have more marked combs and wattles , be generally heftier with heavier legs and feet . It is not always that simple though which is why I suggested taking them back for the seller to sex especially if you have not done so before. Ros
 
Thank you for your reply. Well, I rang her today and she told me that because she is only a hobby poultry keeper a swap or money back would not apply.

So, now we have to find somehow another way to get them sorted after all we don't want to start slaughtering the hens, lol.

Today when we looked at them all closer we realised that two have bigger wattles, combs and heavier legs but also there is a hen without the prominent wattles, comb but chunky legs and is also as large as the other two in size? :-)19

Would there be any way to make the cockerel crow? :lol: ( I know this sounds hilarious ) so we could watch and know which ones are the cockerels. Mon
 
Hello David,

Thank you so much for you offering to sex them for us :) I have to take some pictures tomorrow morning as my son has to take them for us and upload them on here as I am not familiar yet how to do that :oops:

Thank you again David it is much appreciated :)
 
That makes me so cross---hobby or professional breeder if they are sold as girls she should exchange or refund if they are not.IF she sells them as unsexed then that's up to the buyer to accept the risk whilst buying them cheaply. GGGRRRRRRR! Ros
 
Thank you Ros, we will be more educated hopefully next time as we are sure we have to go and get some additional hens from somewhere else to make up our flock of six. Mon
 
Thank you for all who replied, especially David.

Well as it happens we finally found out that we have four boys now and only two girls which means the slaughtering is commencing of the cockerels next weekend :( as for the two girls we will start having to get some more sisters in for them in the meantime :)

We are undecided yet which breed to get as we want a utility bird (meat + egg) rather then as keeping for pet or show purposes as we are trying to be as selfsufficient as possible :-)05

It was an experience not to be repeated but we guess all first timer poultry keepers make mistakes :D Mon
 
I would personaly take them back to the breeder. If she has sold them as hens she should replace or give you the money back. Ring her and advise you are on your way over with them!
 
Welshy said:
Thank you for all who replied, especially David.

Well as it happens we finally found out that we have four boys now and only two girls which means the slaughtering is commencing of the cockerels next weekend :( as for the two girls we will start having to get some more sisters in for them in the meantime :)

We are undecided yet which breed to get as we want a utility bird (meat + egg) rather then as keeping for pet or show purposes as we are trying to be as selfsufficient as possible :-)05

It was an experience not to be repeated but we guess all first timer poultry keepers make mistakes :D Mon
Click to expand...

This is not a sales pitch as I probably too far away from you - but may I put in a word for the traditional English Cuckoo Marans as a good all round dual purpose bird

The females are reasonble layers of very large and good coloured brown eggs, and the males make a very good meat bird if bought from a quick maturing strain, plus the meat is gourmet quality. The older females make good boiling fowl at 2 to 3 years or so, if you want to replace them with younger stock.

There are lots of photos of the type of birds and eggs on my dark brown eggs website

All the best
Sue
 
Thank you Sue :)

We will have a look at the website and will decided from there :)

Mon
 
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