Sexing Barred Rocks

[soukilee93]

I have read so many things on here regarding leg coloring, head coloring, wing feathering....ah! Please help! I got these 6 chicks free with feed from Southern States. I have one who has tail feathers growing in much quicker than the others. Some with small white dots on the head, some with bigger dots, some with grayish coloring and all of them have the blackish coloring on the front of the legs but one has none on the feet. Are they even true BR?
This is what they looked like 3 days after we brought them home.

This is 10 days after we brought them home.
If you want something more, please let me know and I will take those and post them.

 

[dragonmorgan]

You can see the barring on their wings and tails so i believe they are barred rocks. If you can get good pics of their head spots, leg coloring, and ones that show how much feather growth they have im sure someone can give you some opinions on their sex.

 

[Fred's Hens]

The head spot begins to blur after a few days, so I find it reliable mostly at hatch up to day 5. Cockerels are lighter, charcoal, while the pullets are generally darker black in appearance. The leg streak is iffy, as hatchery stock is just that way.

What is certain is this. You'll know in just a few weeks with virtual certainty. The cockerels will feather in bright, bold and very sharp contrast between large white bars. The pullets will be dark. Their bars will take much more time to come in. At first, the pullets are more specked than barred. The cockerels will also show pink/red in the comb at 4-5 weeks. The pullet's comb will stay yellow. The cockerels will also sprout little, red wattles by 5 weeks. So, you will know for certain very, very soon. BRs are easy to sex at 4-5 weeks. The difference is stark.

 

[dragonmorgan]

yea Im learning that leg wash and head dots are still no guarantee. Early feather development seems to be a good indicator so far with most of my chicks tho. Here are my 2 when I first got them. Both had dark/black fluff, small head spot, and dark leg wash.



Here they are now at 3 weeks. In the pic of them as day olds the one in the front is turnin out to be a pullet and the one in the back is lookin like a roo.

Pullet...


Roo...

 

[BlazeJester]

Be careful with that one - having intended them all for the table, my BR boys are stealing my heart one by one... June is gonna be a rough month.

 

[dragonmorgan]

I dont know what Immma do with that one bein a roo. Ive already got at least 3 other suspect roos and 2 chicks that are mystery chicks that could both turn out to be roos also. Im hopin to have at least 3 nice ones because I wanna keep 2 and my friend wants one. The rest can be mean if they want since they will prolly be headed for the freezer. I heard that alot of BR roos are mean tho.

 

[soukilee93]

Your pics scare me. It is looking right now like I might have 5 roos and 1 pullet. My children and myself included are going to be heartbroken if this is the case, especially if the sweetest in the bunch is a roo and the least friendly one is a pullet. I will take some more pictures tonight individually and post. I really am hoping for good news!! I will have to keep an eye on the comb for coloration and keep an eye out for the wattles. Thank you all for your input so far.

 

[soukilee93]

Okay, so I was able to get individual shots of each chick...

Chick 1

Chick 2

Chick 3

Chick 4

Chick 5

Chick 6

There are my babies...I hope these shots are good shots for you to tell something more. They really did not want to cooperate today in the process. Every single one tried to run away from me or my daughter.

 

[dragonmorgan]

#1 looks like a pullet to me. Chick 3 might also be a pullet but its hard to tell. The rest look like roos. They are still young tho so it could always go either way.

 

[Fred's Hens]

Your pics scare me. It is looking right now like I might have 5 roos and 1 pullet. My children and myself included are going to be heartbroken if this is the case, especially if the sweetest in the bunch is a roo and the least friendly one is a pullet. I will take some more pictures tonight individually and post. I really am hoping for good news!! I will have to keep an eye on the comb for coloration and keep an eye out for the wattles. Thank you all for your input so far.

Sorry. Don't mean to "scare" you, but you have lots and lots of cockerels there. Again, at 5 weeks, it is going to become obvious. That's not too far away given the age of the chicks. At 6 weeks, all the cockerels will sprout tiny pink wattles and pink combs, while the pullets will have no wattles and their combs will remain yellow until 16 weeks. You are going to know very, very soon that most (if not all) of these chicks are cockerels.

At this age, the cockerels are often the more "fun" and full of personality.