Friday, January 14, 2011

Girl or Boy - WHICH IS IT!

I'm 99.9% sure that Coco, Ginger and Pumpkin are girls.  But I'm still on the fence with Poppy.

At a young age, she started to develop a comb and wattles.  Which made me wonder if she was a boy.  So I emailed some people who said that she was a boy.  But then I learned that Marans (Poppy is a Cuckoo Marans) are some of the most difficult birds to sex.  So I sought out a few people who raise Marans and they said to relax, that Poppy was most likely a girl.

She's one week older than her sisters and noticeably larger than they are which also causes me to take pause.  But I relaxed and didn't really think much of it until this week when I was looking at her and noticed that the ends of her tail feathers are starting to curl down, like roosters do.

Poppy - Boy or Girl?
I emailed my friends again and asked what they thought and one says a boy and the other says definitely a girl.  I'm so frustrated.  It'd be one thing if I had a flock of 10 or 20 birds.  But when you only have 4 and raised them from baby chicks, you really become attached to each of them.  They all get along so well with each other that the thought of having to remove one from the pack, just breaks my heart.

Nothing is definitive yet so I'm getting ahead of myself.  And I did have a few people email me saying that their Cuckoo Marans rooster doesn't crow.  Not a peep.  Not sure how that's possible.  But if that were the case, I see no reason why I couldn't keep Poppy.

But I do have to admit, I was really looking forward to having Cuckoo Marans eggs in my egg basket.  They are dark chocolate brown and just so different from anything I've seen.  In a carton with Pumpkin's green eggs, Coco's giant brown eggs and Ginger's brown eggs, I thought that would be so pretty.

Cuckoo Marans Eggs
And anyone who knows me personally, knows I HATE surprises.  I don't like waiting.  I'm an impatient person and horribly organized.  So to sit back and take this day by day is KILLING ME!!!

2 comments:

  1. Hi Flock Mistress - I can only say time will tell.
    I was in the same situation last year when one of my four BO's was developing faster than the other three. They all turned out to be hens but I was fearful that I would have to rehome the one (if male). That would have been very difficult.
    I'm hoping yours will turn out to be a hen too.
    Love your site and set up.

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  2. Oh, so you can relate? I'm so frustrated. My husband keeps telling me to just relax and take it one day at a time and I know he's right. I'm still frustrated.

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