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Friday, 6th September 2013

Yesterday we were contacted by a family who have just moved into the area and were after a couple of new chickens: we invited them over for a look round the smallholding and an hour later they left with two of our four month old pullets (young female hens, as in the photo) AND a baby female rabbit (a companion for their existing female of about two years).
We are always very careful when we sell pullets to reassure the buyers that we are 99% sure that the birds in questions ARE female but in the event one or more turn out to be cockerels, we will take the bird back AND refund the money too. This is not as crazy as it sounds: some chickens can look female in every respect and for most breeds, by the time they are around three-four months old, it should be really clear which are male/female. VERY occasionally though a bird can develop very late and one that looked and behaved like a hen, turns out to be a cockerel. Some breeds are harder to sex than others until they are older, Silkies being a prime example, whilst others such as Leghorns show male/female characteristics as early as five-six weeks. The major sign to look for is the comb, which in males is big and red plus the tail feathers which are long and pointed. We are as confident as we can be that the bird below is a hen. What do you think?
It is always a huge pleasure to show people round and share experiences and expertise: the two children were delightful and pretty much fell in love with all the animals they saw. (As they left we could still hear the pleas: 'mummy, can we have a sheep'; 'mummy I would really like a goat...'). Mind you the pygmies really do sell themselves when they look this cute. And talking of 'sales' no news yet on rehoming the goat kids: lots of promises but nothing definite...