QQ- Do roosters have a way of sensing gender?

[missmaqs]

Apologies if this is silly, but I've been super curious. My rooster puts on a dance for the ladies, and lately he's been dancing for some of my straight runs, ranging from 1 month to 6 months old - he picks specific birds in my flock of young ones and dances for them? Can roosters instinctually tell what their gender is before I can, or is he just being "friendly"

 

[TheOddOneOut]

Apologies if this is silly, but I've been super curious. My rooster puts on a dance for the ladies, and lately he's been dancing for some of my straight runs, ranging from 1 month to 6 months old - he picks specific birds in my flock of young ones and dances for them? Can roosters instinctually tell what their gender is before I can, or is he just being "friendly"

He can’t tell. Most likely.

 

[sourland]

I'll blame it on the hormones and wishful thinking.

 

[missmaqs]

He can’t tell. Most likely.

that makes sense.. thought they might be able to smell them or something lol. what a social little guy!

 

[JacinLarkwell]

He might have a better clue than people, but probably not. He's likely just flashing his colors and showing he's head male

 

[missmaqs]

I was thinking about how I can usually point out a cockerel based on which chicks are sparring in my yard/chasing pigeons - thought maybe they had some instinct that i don't! But yeah my roo loves being the head male - he just bein fancy

 

[Rhodebar Lover]

I would assume he can tell gender to be honest. At a month to six months, I as a human can tell most sexes of most chicks. I would highly bet he can as well. Dancing is also a dominance gesture that is used rooster to rooster. Can you get pictures of the chicks he's dancing at? I would wonder if they're cockerels...

 

[missmaqs]

I would assume he can tell gender to be honest. At a month to six months, I as a human can tell most sexes of most chicks. I would highly bet he can as well. Dancing is also a dominance gesture that is used rooster to rooster. Can you get pictures of the chicks he's dancing at? I would wonder if they're cockerels...

heck yeah I can - this is the youngest, unbearded silkie. He whips out all the dance moves for this little fella.

 

[NatJ]

Can roosters instinctually tell what their gender is before I can, or is he just being "friendly"

He might notice things you do not, both because he has more time and because he has more motivation to figure it out.

I would suspect body language and how they move would tell him more than instinct or smell, but since I'm not a chicken I might be very wrong.

 

[Rhodebar Lover]

He might notice things you do not, both because he has more time and because he has more motivation to figure it out.

I would suspect body language and how they move would tell him more than instinct or smell, but since I'm not a chicken I might be very wrong.

They're also quite sight-based and see much better than we can-even ultra violet light. I would love to see a study on this because I've wondered about this for ages. Right now I have a batch under a broody that I haven't been able to sex yet because they're only four weeks old, but I can't shake the idea that my hen probably does... It seems even chicks know the genders of their peers almost from the get-go. So often cockerels will play fight more with each other, even before I know genders. Perhaps they don't know the genders of the other chicks though and just bunch up based on personality which happens to frequently correlate with sex.