[Brood of Bournemouth]

Up until last week I was sure that I had a hen, however over the last few days she/it has become quite vocal( although not crowing). she hatched at the start of may, so was hoping for her to start laying soon.

So is she a girl, or is he a boy??? 

[Brood of Bournemouth]

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[Brood of Bournemouth]

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[GrannieAnnie]

I don't know much about Wyandotte's but he/she is beautiful.  At about 17 weeks old, if it is a boy, I would have thought there would be more comb/wattles by now, and maybe at least the start of a crow.

So fingers crossed its a girl! 

[splash101]

probably no help at all but i have some partridge wyandotte bantams that are coming up to 10 weeks old and the males have more developed combs and wattles and are very red and have a very red face around the eyes etc  whereas the females are very pale and have very liitle wattle growth and combs and are very pale around the eyes etc.

I've only got them short term as i hatched them for a friend and they are off in a couple of weeks.

I havent got any upto date photos of them to show the difference (slacking in the photo dept at the moment)

like i said no help at all but he / she is very handsome / pretty

[wildwitchy]

It looks like a hen to me. The neck and tail feathers are hen like. Theres no wattle or comb development. Lovely looking chook.

[ANHBUC]

At this stage it looks like a lady, very pale face for a roo.  If you have adult cockerels the young ones can have delayed development.  Two of mine only started to crow 2 weeks after their 2 brothers had gone (they had been crowing for 3 weeks and had tail plumes).  You may have to wait around 30 week old for her to lay so be patient.   

[joyfull]

I would say a hen and also you may have to wait until about Feb/March for your first egg off her.

[splash101]

male 10 wks old

[splash101]

female 10 wks old

[Casey76]

How old is it?

The saddle hackles look very female, but I've found that SL dottes can look female for a long time then *poof* they have pointy feathers and are crowing

(last year I hatched about 25 laced dottes and 22 of them were boys  :blink: )

[GrannieAnnie]

Hatched early May Casey, so about 17 weeks!

[Brood of Bournemouth]

Thanks all for the informative posts and pictures, I am pleased that it would appear for now that I have a hen! She is one of my favourites and would have been very disappointed, should I have had to re-home her if she was a he.

If she does take until march before she is ready to lay me an egg, then that's just fine as I simply enjoy just tending to my egg-less flock.

Thanks all for your help!   

[joyfull]

pure breeds take longer to come into lay and lay less often than hybrids - but they do lay the same amount of eggs as they lay for a longer period, often they will still lay the occasional egg when they are 8 years old