Spotting a Rooster

Backyard Poultry

First Sign of  a Cockerel

Adult feathers were not the only things appearing on the growing chicks. The beginnings of their combs were also beginning to be seen. On most the chicks, all we could see at this point of the emerging combs were tiny pink spots. But there was one Buff Orpington whose comb was much more grown out. As you can see in the picture above, the lobes (that's what the lumps on the comb are called) were already distinctly formed. There's only one explanation for this: the chick is a cockerel (a young rooster). Now, of course, we ordered all pullets (hens) from the hatchery; but, of course, they could not guarantee that no cockerels would slip into the batch. So, it seems, out of the fourteen chicks I received, one Buff Orpington is a rooster. But we will have to wait a bit longer to be sure.