3.5wk old Barred Rock: Hen or Roo game

[sayga]

It's quite likely too early to tell for sure, but since guessing is fun too, take a stab at this one. This is our only Barred Rock chick, hatched March 21 (3.5 weeks ago). What so you think: hen or roo? My guess is roo.

 

[Fred's Hens]

That is a cockerel and it only has one barring gene. Where did you get this male?

 

[sayga]

My sister bought fertilized eggs online and hatched them. She has one BR and I have the other. We have some olive eggers, Wyandottes, and others too.

A single barring gene? I'm going to have to go read about that. I don't know what that means.

 

[Cyan Night]

Yep, looking like a little man

 

[BantamLover21]

Cockerel for sure. Fred's Hens, how do you know it only has one barring gene? I've never heard of that before, (or at least have never heard of it being obvious by appearance) but it sounds interesting.

 

[Fred's Hens]

A true bred Barred Rock male carries two barring genes and looks like this.





The bird shown is likely a cross and the barring is simply too little, too blurry and too sparse to be a Barred Rock. It may well be what is commonly known as a black sex link male, who also only carries one barring gene.

I can also see what looks to be some golden/reddish/brown appearing on the wing. My guess would be that much more of the gold leakage will appear with age.

 

[sayga]

The "gold leakage" is actually some kind of food smeared on the wing. But I think you're right about the rest.

 

[Fred's Hens]

The "gold leakage" is actually some kind of food smeared on the wing. But I think you're right about the rest.

I'm glad it was just food. I was gonna proffer that perhaps it was just a poop smear, but thought better of it.

 

[sayga]

Here is our little barred rock mutt at 8 weeks old. My sister's "barred rock" has gold neck feathers, so clearly the person we got the eggs from either lied about their being pure barred rocks, has no idea what a barred rock actually is, or had a sneaky rooster who got in with her barred hens. Well, he is definitely a rooster so it doesn't matter. He can be my husband's birthday dinner in August... He is very friendly though. Love this lil guy.

 

[sayga]

And if anyone was wondering, he DEFINITELY was a rooster. We ate him last week, and dug two nice fat testicles out of his abdomen while gutting him. They were huge compared to his relatively-little size. So there's your final update.