Well there is no doubt about it. Friday morning he crowed 4 times within about two minutes of being let out and then jumped one of the pekins.
Unfortunately I have contacted the breeder and been told:
"Unfortunately i don’t offer to swap birds, i am sure you can appreciate that once they have left here we have no way of knowing if they are our birds or ones from somewhere else, this is why birds which are younger and therefore not certain to be girls are cheaper, and i would have warned you of this at the time.
I usually offer a discount off something else if this happens, i do have a blue cochin hen, that is about a year old so i know its definitely a girl, and if you want to bring him back here for us to try and rehome i can do one for £20 instead of £30."
This is doubliy annoying as she specifically offered a swap when we bought the bird and asked whether it was definitely a girl and compounds the feeling that she took advantage of us as we're positive she sold us birds that were a lot younger than she claimed. Oh well, won't be going to her again.
We now need to see how noisy he gets. Neighbours are ok so far but we'll see whether that goo will fades.
Ben