[cyrus1974]

Firstly I would like to say hello to everyone as a new member.

Secondly could anyone give their opinion as to whether our Buff Orpington is a hen as first thought or a cockrel as is now being suspected? Buffy is 33 weeks old and we have had her for 15 weeks. She has never laid an egg, whereas our gold lace orpington who is 30 weeks old is laying. She is considerably taller and bigger than the gold lace and all our other hens. She has recently grown some new much longer neck and tail feathers, which co-incided with her growth spurt. She has much longer legs than the other birds. Buffy has always been the most dominant bird in the flock and has started to tred some of the other birds and grabs hold of their neck feathers. She also has a quite large comb which is very red in colour. The only trait we have not observed is any typical cockrel noises? She is not very vocal, but do not know if the cockrel noises are age dependent?
Finally she has a small growth on the rear of both her legs about half way up? Could this be the start of a spur? None of the other birds have these two bumps.
Have included a picture to help with your views.

[joyfull]

most hens have the little bumps - I even have a hen with rather large spurs (and yes she is a hen). The wattles and comb on yours are still small so still looks like a hen, as for laying many pure breeds don't start until they are over 35 weeks old - I do have one that has never laid.

[Colernehens]

Hi, we have 12 Orpingtons, all different colours and ages and I would say although we are no expert that it is a girl.
We have one black Hen who didn't lay her first egg until she was about 14 months old.

[GrannieAnnie]

That's a rather unhappy looking hen!  She would be crowing by the age of about 16 weeks, some of ours started to crow at 12 weeks.

Also some of our pure breed hens were 42 weeks before they laid.  We have a Welsummer hen who is over a year old and has never laid an egg!

She may be taller than the others, but her legs are still quite slim looking, she has the hen stance and comb and wattles would be bigger by now, also tail would be more upright.

Her tail is very low, is she healthy?

[cyrus1974]

Thanks for all your responses so far. Yes she is very healthy. She has recently undergone a partial moult and has new neck and tail feathers.

[Casey76]

I'd also say hen.

Buff orpingtons have been bred for a long time, and as a result are much more developed than some of the other colours.

Colours such as gold laced, which are still "under development" have had other genes bred into them (from crossing orpingtons to other breeds to get the colours) and this can be detrimental in size and mass for many generations.  Consequently I would expect the buff orpies to be much bigger than gold laced, both in height and mass.

Buffy also seems to be from exhibition lines (lots of floof, and appearing to have find feathers), adn exhibition orpies are infamous for being poor layers.  Generally breeders would want to prevent the massive breeds (Orpies, brahmas, cochins etc) from laying in their first year ebcause then more energy goes into growing, rather than egg production, so I probably woudn't be concerned about the lack of eggs until next spring