Newbie chicken question here..... at what age can I tell a rooster from a hen, and how, exactly, do I tell? ?:|

If I remember right most kinds of roosters have wattles under their chin and taller combs on top of their head. They start trying to crow pretty early and their voice sounds funny at first. They are also the ones who will attack you from behind sometimes. We always ate them first. B-)

Yeah, if you actually plan on keeping roosters, be sure to get their spurs trimmed on a regular basis. I know your thinking "Huh? Its just a chicken!" Well a rooster can drive its spur right to the bone! I've seen some people who look like they've been shot by a .22! So grab the bull by the horns and start trimming the spurs!

At about 2 months they'll start trying to crow. Squeeky sounding, pathetic noises. The roosters I've had also tend to be feisty and as young chicks are the ones that seem to always be harassing the other chicks.

They also start looking different in body shape at 2 1/2 months. The roosters tail is held more upright and he holds his head higher. The hens will be lower to the ground, and they don't hold their tails so upright.

Along with all the other great info. I'd like to add...

When chicks are newly-hatched and you really, really can't tell at a glance...(At the stage of growth when you still have them in a big, empty water trough with heat lamps over head.) The roosters tend to be the chicks that run up to your hand. Seemingly more friendly but they are a bit bolder in behavior even at that early age.

Not always but 9 times out of 10!

You can order them sexed...that way somebody else has to look and it doesn't cost much more.

purplebean

Ditto the spur-trimming advice. Roosters have been known to fly spurs first at small children--occasionally causing severe eye damage.

Locke, do you happen to know how to trim spurs by some chance (getting big buff orpingtons ordered this weekend, myself)?

Have you ever trimmed a dog's toenails? Well you can use the same tool and the same method. Most spurs are translucent enough for you to see the living core, much like the nerve of a tooth. Just take a few nibbling bites off the tip of the spur, just enough to blunt it, but don't hit the core or you will hurt the rooster.

Thanks for all the info. If I do have any roosters, I'll probably end up getting rid of them. Both for the safety factor and because I can't afford to be waking up the nieghbors at 5 am. Not to mention we only got chickens for the eggs, so roosters won't do me much good

Well now that depends. Are you going to buy an entirely new flock every eight years or so? Chickens really don't live that long, so its a good idea to have a rooster that you can let into the hen house to perk up your flock from time to time. Course you have to make sure that the roosters are from a different clutch of eggs that your hens, which means a new rooster every eight years. However thats a bunch cheaper that an entirely new flock. And as for the roosters that are born into your flock, well cockerels are usually the first to be eaten, about two years after hatching. You keep the biggest and the strongest in an outside pen for as long as you want, but when the rest start to get their first hormonal rush, into the oven they go.

In an aside to the other info:

You can buy a sex-link type of bird. As in red sex-links: the hens are colored, and the males are white. (RSLs are supposed to have one of the most efficient feed-egg conversion ratios in chickens.) There are a few types of birds that the females color differently from the males. An old wives' tale says that well-rounded eggs produce pullets, and narrower, more pointed eggs will produce cockerels. (I've never paid attention, so I don't know.)

You could also order a dual-purpose breed. I am currently looking into either Jersey Giants or Bramas. They take longer to mature, but even if slaughtered young, they have a good deal more meat on them than lighter breeds. We've got a LtBrama hen that lays one very large brown egg per day, and at one year old is as big as our 4 y/o sex-link rooster. (In the JGs, hens mature at 10-12 lbs., and the roos can mature up to 23 lbs.!) If their laying wasn't so poor, CornishXRocks would be another way to go. You know those Cornish hens you buy in the freezer section? Those are six-week old CornishXRock pullets! By the time the roos start acting up, they are a very nice weight for the freezer. For more info on breeds, try www.feathersite.com.
As the previous poster said (sorry, can't remember who it was???), when the young roos start acting hormonal, it's chicken dinner time. I have found that keeping my excess roosters out loose, away from any hens, keeps the sparring at a minimum. The hens and attendant rooster are kept in a covered pen, and that worked fine until the neighbor's nasty dogs came over and had fun. If you have a completely fenced yard, that might work for you. The crowing can get obnoxious, though.

Thanks Locke!

Several months before I bought my first chicks, I bought Storey's Guide to Raising Chickens. A very informative and interesting read.

For my first chicks, I choose 2 Black Sex Link & 2 Buff Sex Link. Very pretty birds. I had also bought 2 Bronze Turkey's, but a month after they went outside into the cage I was using while I finished fencing the coop area, my neighbors dog came over to "play".

Anyhoo, the Sex Links started laying about a month or so earlier then I expected them to. One of them gave an egg everyday. One almost everyday. The third, 3-4 a week. The fourth chicken didn't really start laying until the other chickens became coyote food. But, for awhile, I almost had more eggs than I knew what to do with.

This year, for eggs, I bought again 2 Buffs & 2 Blacks. But I'm going to try breeding, so I also bought a Rhode Island Red Rooster & in May I'll be getting 2 R.I.R hens & 2 Barred Rock hens. I've decided to try breeding because I have serious concerns regarding that Asian Bird Flu. I figure it's better to make & learn from any mistakes before it's important not to.

Yeah that bird flu is nasty stuff. I heard on public radio that yer domestic birds can catch it from other migrating birds. So far it's not a big problem. I hope it stys that way.

So far the bird flu goes from bird to bird, or bird to human. But they're afraid it might mix with another flu and then be able to go human to human.

Also, you should feed your chickens naturally. If you buy feed, make sure it has NO antibiotics in it. I read recently about a study done on store bought chickens. Apparently, 2-3 years ago, the Cipro family of antibiotics were removed from use in chicken feed. 4 brands of chickens, 2 regular store bought, 2 all natural/organic, were bought. One of the store brands was Tyson. Several chickens of each brand were purchased at a time, with several different trips to the stores.

After 2 years of not being feed the antibiotics, the "regular" chickens had pretty high counts of resistant bacteria. The all natural/organic chickens had some, also but in much smaller numbers.

I know so many people who misuse their antibiotics, and when I try to explain what they're doing wrong, they look at me like I'm nuts. Funny, they are the same people with a house full of anti-bacterial soaps, wash their hands a lot! and in general are wasteful with many of our resources, Just so long as they don't have to do anything to interfere with their lifestyle.

But, at least I can hope that before the planet implodes, I have enough time to say "I told you so". But it's not much comfort, having that to "look forward to".

Don't worry, slowly but surely people are learning and coming around. There have been several programs on TV on this subject in the last several years, so the word is getting spread.

I knew I'd found our new family physician when he examined my daughter and informed me that what she had didn't require a prescription of antibiotics, just over the counter meds.