This Dominique is giving mixed signals, to tell the truth.
It has male coloring (very light),
small though very pink comb (bumps mean nothing-that's how a rose comb should be),
however, at this time, I do not see any of the saddle or hackle feathers associated with a cockerel showing. By 13 weeks of age, my Barred Rock males have very definite saddle feathers showing.
If you part the back feathers to see the new feathers coming in, if you see very shiny, skinny, pointy saddle feathers, you have a late blooming male. The body shape even seems more pullet-like than male to me right now.
You may have a later blooming cockerel, if you go on color alone. I have, however, had barred pullets who were that light-my late BR hen, Lexie, was one of them. Everyone kept mistaking her for a cockerel until she was almost 12 weeks old.
Pullets rarely have that much color in the comb by that age, but some do. Just depends. '
If you forced me to call it, I'd say a late blooming cockerel because of color combined with comb redness, even though the body shape is more pullet-like, IMO, but some just fool you and this one isn't being fair with us, LOL.
Here is a 13 week old Barred Rock cockerel I owned years ago--you can see the long saddle feathers already on him:
By the same token, these 12 week old BR pullets are the usual pullet color--and you can compare comb redness, too:
Edited by speckledhen - 6/16/12 at 7:18am
