Plymouth Rock hens or Roos

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kelsonchicken

kelsonchicken

Hatching
Feb 19, 2016
9
0
7
I've raised these babies from hatch and still haven't been able to figure out which are Roos and which are hens. Someone told me the darker ones are boys and the lighter are girls - however my darkest is the smallest and has almost no wattle etc - so I feel like she must be a hen. The other 3 are the same size but I'm unsure whether they are just bigger hens or is they are roosters? Any help would be appreciated!!!! Please let me know what you think of these photos.
400
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The one pictured is definitely a rooster :-/ I have had light hens though, so some pics of the others might help :-D
 
Both birds pictured are male, and are gorgeous. Narrow black baring is male specific. Males have two copies of the barring gene, making them look lighter. It's not genetically possible for a pullet to have two copies, so they appear darker, with wider black bars.
 
junebuggena said:
Both birds pictured are male, and are gorgeous. Narrow black baring is male specific. Males have two copies of the barring gene, making them look lighter. It's not genetically possible for a pullet to have two copies, so they appear darker, with wider black bars.
Click to expand...
I used to raise cuckoo Polish, and from what I understand, they work much the same as Rock's, with the females being darker. But over and over, I hatched light hens and dark roos. I only ever hatched one dark pullet, and two light roos, and that's out of a LOT of chicks. Are Polish just opposite, or did I get a weird strain of vice-versa chickens? I seem to have a knack for getting weird strains...
 
MadamPoofyBrow said:
I used to raise cuckoo Polish, and from what I understand, they work much the same as Rock's, with the females being darker. But over and over, I hatched light hens and dark roos. I only ever hatched one dark pullet, and two light roos, and that's out of a LOT of chicks. Are Polish just opposite, or did I get a weird strain of vice-versa chickens? I seem to have a knack for getting weird strains...
Click to expand...
Cuckoo should work the same as the barring gene. The way the gene works, barred/cuckoo hens can only pass that barring gene on to their male chicks. Barred roosters will pass their barring genes to both genders. So, male chicks have two barring genes, one from the mother and one from the father. Females can only ever have one barring gene, and it can only come from the father. This only works if both mother and father are pure for barring, though. A rooster with only one barring gene (black sexlink) bred with a barred hen can produce cockerels with only one barring gene, making them look dark like pullets.
I think you may have had birds with mixed genetics. They may have had other 'silver' genes affecting the amount of white/silver.
Like I said, it's not genetically possible to breed a pure cuckoo/barred pullet with light, male-type barring.
 

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