Accurate Barred rock chick sexing

[GypsyJoey]

Hello all, Just had a quick question regarding barred rock chick sexing. How accurate if the head spot method? I have a flock of 1 week old barred rock chicks, you can definitely see that some have small round white spots on their heads(hen) and some have more of a tapered receding white splotch trailing from their head down to their neck(rooster). But how accurate is this method of sexing? I would only like to keep 1 rooster and have the rest hens. But if this is not an accurate method for sexing I would hate to give away what I think are roosters only to find out they were hens.

any help would be greatly appreciated
thanks
Joey

 

[Egghead_Jr]

The head spot in combination with leg color is incredibly accurate. More centric head spot combined with dusty leg fronts is pullet. No coloring on legs excepting yellow and blotchy or large head spot male.

I was searching for some good photos of chicks to post but couldn't find any to demonstrate the two sexes only pullets or crossbreeds on google images. But here's an abstract that states exactly what we know: Says head spot only is 83-90% accurate and leg color with head spot 95%.

http://ps.fass.org/content/28/4/479.short

 

[goldfinches]

I sexed my batch of 6 with the head spots last year - the only time I've ever done it - and was 100% accurate.