5 Barred Rocks and Marshmallow 3.5 weeks old, what will they be... he or she?

[raisingdaisies]

Hulk and maybe Pretty Eyes look like cockerels to me. Otherwise Pretty Eyes is going to be a light colored BR female. We have one who is lighter colored. I always have to do a double take with her unless she's next to our actual Cockerel b/c she's lighter than the other females, but definitely darker than the male We sexed them by spot and legs out of a straight run bunch at a local pet store 9 weeks ago and were happily right(we wanted one male and 3 females).

 

[VaMamaHen]

That's awesome I tried to do the head spots but I'm new to BRS so I couldn't tell. Hulk looks more and more like a roo everyday but I'm hoping Pretty Eyes will be a girl. She/he has always been larger than the others and now they are all close to the same size. I am definitely having fun waiting for the surprise of gender. Was this your first batch of BRS? If not how do you like the breed?

 

[raisingdaisies]

BRs were our first along with an Indian Red Jungle Fowl and Sicilian Buttercup (we bought these 2 from the neighbor boy who had no idea what they were, nor did we at first). I love our BR although they can definitely be bossy, 2 of our 3 new females are bossier than our Leghorn Roo who is a week older than they are, lol. Otherwise they are consistent layers, good at free range(though we currently are not doing this because our dog....is not chicken friendly anymore), and our 2nd in command is one of our first BRs and she keeps the others in line

 

[VaMamaHen]

That's great to hear we have reds currently and they are bossy as well. They don't really like human contact though and we have worked with them a lot. I heard that BRS like humans a little more and they are a hearty breed. We have a hen like that too. She has taken the dominate role, kinda curious how she's gonna act with a roo around lol. Glad we decided to add some rocks to our flock

 

[raisingdaisies]

Ours don't mind being held and come up to check what's going on and follow you around while you are working(or around the yard when they are out, lol). They did well with our Roo when we had a big one. We had to give a couple mean roos away, and are now raising up new ones. In fact, the only ones of our flock who didn't care for the Roo were our Jungle Fowl and our hen that was part of a speckled breeding program. Oddly enough those are both of our broodiest hens.

 

[chickenmole]

I have had a whole lot of barred rocks, and Hulk and Pretty Eyes are almost definitely little boys. I always compare their legs, my cockerels always have sturdier legs even before the barring difference becomes really apparent. They're beautiful. One of my favorite breeds

 

[VaMamaHen]

I'm hoping I don't have to experience a mean roo. That was my first thought when the babies started maturing. I've heard so many stories about roosters being so mean. That's awesome that you can hold yours. We have one that used to like being held because she was picked on but now she's 2nd in the pecking order so she's too good for us now lol.


I was looking at their legs a lot last week because hulk, pretty eyes and watermelons legs were huge! But over the past week all 6 of them have grown similar in overall size and leg size. Marshmallow was so much smaller than the rest in the beginning but she has really hit a growth spurt this week. She's slightly smaller but not by much. Do you know much about leg color? I read on quite a few threads that black is female and yellow is male. Hulk had way darker legs but now they have lightened and watermelons legs have been pretty dark. Black widow and Elsa have dark legs but pretty eyes only had black down her/his shins.

 

[chickenmole]

My cuddliest chickens are my roosters(I think maybe because roosters are more outgoing in general, they're braver than the hens). I have had to rehome a couple nasty guys but the majority have been friendly, and the nasty ones were already pecky and aggressive within the first couple weeks!. My Orpington rooster perches on my shoulder, the silky follows us everywhere and hops into our laps to watch tv. Just keep giving them lots of attention.

 

[Chicken Girl1]

Hulk, Watermelon, and Pretty Eyes look like cockerels .

 

[VaMamaHen]

Oh no I hope not but I guess I will have to rehome two if they are.