How early can you accurately sex Barred Rock chicks?

"Their plumage is black and white barred which is the result of the barred (B) gene. Because males are the homozygous sex, they have two barred alleles (BB) and are therefore lighter in color than the females, which are the heterogametic sex and have only one barred allele(B_)." - Ideal Hatchery

How early can you accurately sex Barred Rocks?

I'm just wondering because my family tried Cornish X meat birds for the first time this year. They are now three weeks old and are very high maitenance. You have to take away the food in the evening and put it back in the morning. You have to change their bedding every day, and even then, they're stinking up the house from the basement (they poop a LOT). And we know from research that this is just the beginning.

Last year we tried RIR and BR roosters, and they were really tough, only good for dumplin's and soup. And they were REALLY mean to the pullets.

So, we're thinking about caponizing dual purpose breed birds. To do that, you need to know the gender at three to five weeks old. And I'm not willing to buy sexed males from a hatchery, as they are way to pricey, if you ask me. I'd like to be able to hatch my own...

the males are silver with black bars,the females are black with white bars

The barred rock males will be much lighter in color when they start feathering up at around 2-3 weeks. Some can tell by looking earlier. The ones I hatched I could tell which were which easily by the second week. The barring on the males is a lot lighter in color.

do you see the difference in that pic?at 3 weeks it is very easy to tell.i will have pics of a hatchling in about 2 weeks and you can see the difference right away.

here is a 2 week old boy with the girl in the background see his wings? the 2nd pic shows a 2 day old girl.they have a more uniform white spot on their head.the boys spot tend to be irregular

Much to Tractor Supply's dismay, I was able to pick out the female barred rocks in the tub for other customers. They females "should" have a a very sharp white spot on the top of their heads. They day old males will have a blurry-blended smear. Now, these were hatchery chicks from Mt Healthy. I don't know how it will hold for SQ stock. I bought 15 of the females to resell for myself and only ended with one roo out of the bunch.

I did a couple of google searches for sexing day old barred rocks - one from the University of Florida that stated that the male spot is larger and the female is more narrow.
Hopes this helps and if this counters what someone else here has observed, let me know! I love messing with TSC. (They're always offering me a job!)
Colby

It's pretty easy as soon as they are fluffed out after hatch. I also love to pick out pullets for the customers from the straight run bin, LOL.

This article with pics will help. Doms are the same as BRs in the sexing dept.

http://www.dominiquechicken.com/Sexing_Dominique_chicks.html

Yup. I got 7 females out of 8 at the local so-op straight run bin. I'm hoping for 8 out of 8 next year.

With the day olds, the females have a dot on their heads and are all over darker. The males have a white smudge on their heads and are more silvery looking over all. Once they start feathering out, the males are noticeably lighter in color. Plus, the one male I ended up with grew a red comb and wattles a lot faster than the girls.

Thanks everyone! This is really neat! I'm starting to realize why Barred Rocks were (and still are) so popular. Excellent layer, good for meat, the ultimate blend-in color (for predators), AND sexable by color when young!

Speckledhen: Does the leg color thing apply to Barred Rocks too?

Yes, for the most part, the girls will have a dark wash down the leg fronts. I'm told that some show lines are not that way, but generally, yes, you can go by that. Some males may have a bit of dark, but it won't be all the way down the leg like the girls.

Here is an old document that backs up the other article with accuracy percentages.