We have been increasingly wondering if Betsy is a rooster. We started noticing a week or so ago that we can hear her calling (for lack of a better word) when we pull the truck into the driveway. She has started to call, quite loudly at other times as well. It doesn't sound like a cock-a-doodle-do... nor any sound I can replicate. She doesn't have spurs.. but her facial stuff is getting sorta big.. but since we have never had chickens before have nothing to compare it to. We shall see how this turns out.
It's always tricky when you only have one of each breed. You have nobody to compare her to. However, we do have roosters this time, and at least our Partridge Plymouth Rock rooster was obvious even at 4 weeks. He doesn't have spurs yet, they take time to grow. However, he does have thick brightly colored legs (yellow 'cankles'). Perhaps his most obvious feature right now is his tail and saddle area. His tail almost looks as if he has a few feathers missing, but the feathers that are there are long, and the feathers arch upward, and have pronounced greenish-black iridescence in the feather coloring. As Betsy is a RIR I'd expect her to already show some feather coloring more typical to the roo than the hen if she's actually a he. Keep an eye on her hackle feathers down the neck, and the length of the saddle and tail feathers, along with color, for clues. Her 'calling' can just be that she's a bit chatty. You can find our two roos-in-the-making from a few weeks ago here:
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Didn't anybody check back to this post to report that not only was he a rooster, but that you quickly dispatched and ate him?
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