2.5 week Barred Rock chick- probably a cockerel, isn't it? D:

[Shevraeth]

I know it's too early to tell with certainty, but some of you are good at identifying gender on hatchery birds. I got this little one from Cackle almost 3 weeks ago as a pullet. It has the painted legs and what I thought was dark barring, but as the shoulder feathers started coming in I started to worry. Those legs are thick and the tail is really slow coming in as well, so I'm beginning to think it's a cockerel.

Early guesses?

 

[Kenzie22]

Can you show the wings?

 

[Battlepants]

Fairly confident on pullet with this one.

Barred Rocks are somewhat of a sex link breed in that the barring (white lines) is on the sex chromosomes. Females only get one of these while males get two. The result is that your females look much blacker at this stage where your males will look much whiter.

 

[Shevraeth]

Can you show the wings?

 

[Kenzie22]

Looks like a cockerel but it could still be a pullet probably just need to wait and see once it gets older. How old is it currently?

 

[FBMcrazy8]

I have 2 of these little guys and they are both from Cackle as well. They both grew at the same pace until this last week. Mine are 5 weeks as of Wednesday. There feathers came in at the same time, including their tail feathers. I was positive I had both hens. Turns out I have one pullet and one cockerel. It wasn’t evident until just a couple days before 5 weeks. When he tried crowing. Granted no noise came out but the movement. Like open mouth and sticking his neck out. At first I thought he had something in his throat but he starting chirping again when I went to check on him. He also started developing waffles and his comb was also turning red. The other is still pale looking and no waddles. I would wait and see what happens.