pekin knowledge?????

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hi, pekin breeders-
i was wondering if anyone who has bred pekins could tell me what is the average life span of a pekin hen??
also at what age is the earliest you can tell the difference of male and female?

my older pekin hen was very quiet all day today just sat drifting in to a deep sleep and huddled up.last night was a cold night.
By the evening i brought her indoors but sadly she died within an hour of coming in the house.
she was 5/6 years old , which made me wonder if it was just her age as she had no other sign of poor health . :(
 
Sorry to hear of your loss. :(

I don't keep Pekin Bantams - but 6 years old is about the average age for a hen to live. Some can go on for 10 years or more.

Again, I don't know much about PB's but once you start to know what your youngsters look like after a few hatches, you can usually get a fair idea from the comb / wattle development and tail feather growth from 6 weeks of age. To be sure 10-12 weeks isn't unreasonable but it does depend alot on how quickly the bird grows. Some slow growers like larger birds can take longer to mature and are slower to show the signs.

I'm sure someone that keeps Pekin Bantams can give you a better idea though...
 
Hi,
Sorry to hear your hen passed away- Pekins are real characters and its sad to lose one (especially when you're not sure why.)

To help with your query on what age pekins can be sexed I hatched out my first lot this year and was pretty sure of their sexes at 3 weeks and definite by 6- this was earlier in the year so I think they did develop quickly but the wattles on the young cockerels were much more prominent and red, even at 3 weeks. - Obviously I'm just a beginner but the pekins were a whole lot easier to tell at an early age than the 6 week old orpingtons I have now!

Hope I'm of some help,
Nicky
 
Thanks Nicky,
you conirmed just what i was thinking.
i have 5 pekin chicks at 3weeks old and recon i can see which are the cocks but i didn't know how reliable at such a young age.

it looks like 2 of the 5 are female - typical that there's more boys!!!

Its always sad to lose an old favorite hen but its nice to see some new born and become the new favorites.


Sandy
 
Sandy,
It does seem to happen that way! I had 7/12 cockerels out of my lot and one of the 5 pullets died ( of course it was my children's favourite!) I read somewhere that one way of sexing the chicks is to choose your favourites as they will always be the ones that end up being cockerels and therefore needing a new home - not very scientific but probably true!
Nicky
 
Yes, it's a pain when you get more boys than girls. Last year I had a large percentage of girls and this year a large percentage of boys.

What goes around comes around? :roll:
 
i reckon at 6 weeks i can usually definitely tell the difference between male/female pekins but they are the only chickens i can do this with at the moment.
silkies i still can't tell really untill they either lay an egg or crow lol
pekins however the comb and wattles on the little cock birds are much more pronounced
sorry to hear of your loss, i only started keeping my chickens this year so i know now how long we may have them for :(
 
Having raised two lots of Pekin chicks recently I found that the roos are easy to spot at only a few weeks. Their combs and tails seem to grow quicker than the larger breeds at that age. :) With the last batch I had four out of six eggs hatch (2 were infertile) and I got two hens and two roos. Luckily I rehomed the first roo - he went to a farm and the 2nd one I was able to sell on TradeMe (which is similar to EBay) and he went to a good home as well. 8-)
 
Most pekins can be sexed at around 5-6 weeks, the comb is redder and more prominent of the cockerels, as for sexing silkies at 6-7 weeks the males have wider "knuckle" joints on their legs. Hope this helps.
Sue
 
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