3 Fool Proof Ways to Tell Roosters from Hens
Chicken sexing at a young age is a bit of an art. Even with years of experience I find myself staring down the growing babies looking for signs that they'll be egg-laying hens or yet another rooster.
I wanted to share what I look for when my chicks are growing up. They should help you out if you're wondering if you should be prepping the soup pot or the nest boxes.
There are several ways to tell roosters from hens, some are pretty obvious and some not so much. A few methods can even be misleading.
Eggs
If it lays an egg it's a hen! It doesn't matter how large and red the comb is, how big it's spurs are or how loudly it crows. If there is an egg it is a hen.
However, that's going to take 18-20+ weeks to happen so we'll go over some more helpful ways to tell hens from roosters.
I'm adding this for some comic relief but at the same time you'd be surprised how often I see Facebook posts asking why they have one rooster and one hen but they get two eggs a day.
I've seen hens with spurs, hens that crow and even hens that mount other hens. It doesn't matter how rooster-y they act, if they lay eggs you can be certain you have a hen.
Saddle and Hackle Feathers
This is my main method of telling hens from roosters. The object here is to identify the boys. If there aren't any saddle feathers you can be pretty certain you've got a lady.
There are a few exceptions to this rule. Silkie, Sebright, and some Golden Campine roosters are called 'hen feathered' because they lack the district saddle and hackle feathers.
Roosters have elongated, narrow and pointy saddle feathers on their sides right in front of the tail. They spill over the sides like a waterfall.
These feathers start showing up around 8-10 weeks. Usually by 12 weeks they'll be impossible to miss. Depending on the breed they may be colored differently than the other feathers.
Hackle feathers are found on the neck, in roosters they are also elongated and pointy. Hens also have hackle feathers but they will be more rounded at the ends. I pretty much ignore the necks and trust the saddle feathers to tell me what I need to know.
If you've ever seen two roosters fighting and it looks like they swallowed an umbrella, that's the hackle feathers in action.
Rooster Tail Shape
The most obvious tail clue is the presence of sickle feathers. Sickle feathers are the long, beautiful arched tail feathers that roosters have.
Unfortunately, they seem to take the brunt of rooster-on-rooster aggression and they don't always stay stunning. I've also noticed a 50/50 shot on my Cochin roosters having long tail feathers.
Cochins are a very fluffy, soft-feathered breed and these features can be a little harder to see from far away or if you aren't sure what you're looking for.
The tails can also give you a few clues before those pretty sickles feathers grow in. When the tail feathers grow in you'll notice that hens tails end bluntly. The feathers themselves will have rounded ends.
Rooster tails will start to arc at the end and the feathers will be pointier. In general, roosters seem to be pointier, both in appearance and personality.
Breed Specific Sex Characteristics:
Red on the wings is a sign that an Easter Egger chick is a rooster. All my EE roos have been evil but they are so beautiful!
That guy above was a jerk, you can see the red coloring on his wing. If you look closely you can also see the pointed hackles and the arching tail.
Male Welsummer chicks have a black chest that shows up when they lose the down and start going in regular feathers. The chest on pullets (females) will be red.
Barred chicks will show a difference as day-old chicks, males will have a large light-colored spot on the head and on females it will be smaller. I've never tried it but it's supposed to be 80% correct.
A few not-so-helpful methods
Now that we've covered all the things I do look for, I want to tell you some of the less helpful advice on chicken sexing I've seen thrown around.
Comb Size
Comb size is hands down the most misleading characteristic used to sex chickens in a mixed flock.
If you've only got one kind of chickens you're probably safe to compare and guess.
There are a few generalities that have some truth behind them, the only useful one is rooster combs turn red sooner than hens. This is something I look for but I'm not about to bet money on it.
Going back to those Facebook groups, I was once in a chicken group conversation with someone insisting that his hen was laying 3 eggs a day because the rest were roosters. The rest were not roosters, they were leghorns with giant floppy combs typical for the breed.
Not all roosters will get a giant comb like that pretty boy on the Kellogg box, comb shape and size is determined by genetics. I live in a cold climate with awful winters and I personally favor chickens with small combs for their cold hardiness.
Check out my post on heritage breed chickens built for cold weather to find out more about that.
My Cackle Hatchery surprise box did provide me a with a few large comb breeds. The largest combs on my farm belong to my two brown leghorn hens.
Spurs
Spurs are most likely to show up on roosters but hens can have them. And all chicks will have a little bump where the spur might grow. Right now I have a Cuckoo Maran with big old spurs, unrelated but shes a great mom.
They don't grow in until around 3-8 months so I don't put a lot of importance on them at all. By the way, this is Bruce, he was my favorite rooster ever.
He had giant spurs and overall bad feet but he was a sweetheart and a big reason why Brahmas are my favorite chickens.
Crowing
Hens can crow. Did you know that?
Crowing is much more common in roosters but those egg-laying ladies can do it too. It's most likely to happen in a flock without a rooster.
I hope you have found these chicken sexing methods helpful. Figuring out what type of chick you have and if it's a boy or girl are the trickiest part of having a mixed flock.
Both those things are easier when you only have one type to compare. I love having a mix of egg colors and personalities in my backyard flocks so I'll keep it complicated as long as I have chickens.
Speaking of a mixed flock, how many roosters do you see in this picture? I'll put the answer at the bottom.
Don't forget to PIN this to your Chicken board, check out my Chicken Page for more information or start here:
There are THREE roosters in that shot, from front to back: a giant grey Cochin, an EE and a silver laced Cochin.
Awesome information helped me out a lot TY
Thank you. I already knew most of this, but I'm more familiar with sexing chicks than adults. Plus, it's been many years since I had a flock. Recently gifted 2 adult standard white chickens, I needed this refresher course. -- I would only add, that in flocks with NO rooster, an alpha hen will emerge, acting & sometimes even resembling a rooster. She will even crow (alot). Which can add some frustration to sexing adults, especially for first time chicken owners.
@FortuneSirrush,
We have this issue now! Have 6 chickens. We thought all were hens but one is acting very roostery. She? is not laying now but we think maybe she laid one egg. Not 100% sure it was her egg though! Going home to look at feathers again.
Boy Ill say its confusing! On July 5th I heard this noise outside. At first I thought it was a mockingbird baby. One of our cats was in the bushes between our house and my neighbor and before I knew it a baby chick came running out! NO ONE has chickens in our area!! Anyway, we didn't know the sex or the breed. Pepper is about 13 weeks old now and about we are pretty convinced he is a rooster because of how he sounds and Im so worried that our back neighbors will be bothered by his crowing. Hes not very loud plus we have 6ft block wall that hopefully keeps the sound quieter. We are allowed to have chickens where I live as long as the aren't bothersome. My rooster from what others have said is a mix of some sort possibly with a pea hen?
I wish I could get another opinion but I guess when he gets full size maybe we'll get a better idea?
Hes sweet and loves his first hen friend Rosie the Aracana. They are 2-3 weeks apart in age. The other 2 we have are about a week to 10 days younger. Cookie is a barred rock hen and Twinkie aka Goldie is a buff Orpington. Pepper has been pretty mean to twhe littler ones who are like 6 weeks younger.He is getting better with them.
Hey i have babys but i want to know what sex they are
Unless you have sexlink chicks you'll have to wait for them to get older
@Alecia, how do u sexlink
A sexlink chick is a hybrid breed in which the males are one color and the females are another. The color gene is “linked” to the sex. Makes it really easy to separate males from females when they are hatched. Identifying sex in chicks by looking at the vent, if they aren’t sexlinked, takes a specialist.
Do roosters get feathery legs at ~3 weeks old.
Feathered legs depend on breed, not sex
HI!
I am super nervous about my hen/rooster ratio but your information made me feel a little better. Where would you recommend I look to try and determine breeds?
Thank you!
This post of mine is a great place to start: How to ID Chick Breeds It gets easier as they get older and the real feather patterns and combs grow in but you can usually get pretty close when they're babies
one of my chicks bit my dog and acted aggressive the others don't do this, is my Cassy Lynn gonna be Casey
I'm just here to say that hens have saddle feathers too! People always tend to say "If it has saddle feathers, it's a rooster" but the proper way to say it would be "If it has long, thin, pointed saddle feathers, it's a rooster". Hens have saddles too, they're just rounded and shorter.
In my experience simple explanations are easier, roosters have easily visible and identifiable saddle feathers that make them easy to tell from hens.
Thank you. First flock for us and your information is very helpful
I came here for the information and then got excited when I saw guineas (4?) in your flock. We're new at this so I get excited to learn all the things (and learn from messing stuff up too, lol) We have guineas but they're still babies yet -- I can't wait for them to grow their personalities - but I'm braced for the noise and the attitude, lol.
I think the key to guineas is not having too many, I had five and life was generally peaceful then they got overzealous with the copy/paste and made 15 more. That my friends is too many for my acreage and by the way they can fly over my ranch-style home so there is no fence in the world that will keep them in. Good luck with your guineas!
Great info. I have a flock of 25 mixed heritage breed here in Alberta Canada. Got them at 24 hours old and they’re now 8 weeks. They are all dark black/brown with muddy green/brown eyes and have green/blue iridescent feathers. Never had this mix of bird before. No idea what is female/male. Had poultry all my life and these have stumped me. 🤣
The most accurate method I've found: your favorite will be a rooster haha. They should start showing the arcing tail feathers soon
What type of chicken is Bruce?
Bruce was a Light Brahma Rooster, he was a gentle giant
Thank you for this post, I appreciate the straightforward information and pictures of your lovely birds. I am curious was Bruce pure brahma? I have a sweet boy who looks very similar but I have no clue what breed he may be and my other brahma, is a real jerk (and maybe a Dark Cornish cross)
Thank you
Bruce was a full light Brahma from the hatchery, he was the least aggressive rooster I had at the time and I'm pretty sure he fathered most of the chicks I had (there were an awful lot of feathered feet coming out of a flock of foot feather-free hens!)
I have read this article maybe 5 or 6 times whilst waiting to see if my chick would turn out to be Johnny or Jenny. Will find out in a few weeks, I suppose. I like your writing, thanks for this!
I'm glad you found it helpful! It gets easier to older they get but sometimes they're just tricky little beasts
Have 2 different breeds & a total of 5 young chicks ~ 7-9 wks old. Unsure of their breeds as they were "gifted" to us. Would love to share a picture & see if you could tell
I can give it a try! Email a photo to alecia@ chickenscratchny.com or send it on Instagram at @AleciaCSNY
Is it possible for a chicken to have a mix of male and female feathers? I have an 11 week old that I thought was a hen until it started crowing. The hackle and saddle feathers look round to me as the dads is very pointed but there's an obvious roosters arc. Mom is an EE and dad is EE x cream legbar. Id love to send photos if possible
You can send some photos to alecia@ chickenscratchny.com, usually tail gives it away for me. The saddle and hackles might get pointer with age. I also have a giant cochin rooster who doesn't have a single pointy feather on him, even his very obvious saddle feathers are pretty rounded
do silver wyandottes roosters have spurs
yes
I had a rooster very nice looking not sure what kind he was red up top and white on bottom white tail feathers. What kind was he anyone know?
Love your chicken knowledge. I have two chicks that are now about 2-3 months old. They were supposed to be Buff Orpingtons but are most likely White Rocks. They are super sweet but I am not sure if they are Roos or pullets. If I send pics, could you help identify?
Thx, Connie
great information for me a chicken novice... loved the quiz and picked all three
Very Informative! Thank you.