Barred Easter Egger....You Think Pullet, Still?

[speckledhen]

The comb is narrower than the boys, though, at just over 8 weeks, it is pretty pink. Her body type is more hen-like and so is the tail, but still, that pink comb is throwing me off. I parted her back feathers and can so far, see no roosterly saddle-type feathers coming in at all. These are not quite as easy to sex as pure Barred Rocks! Does it still look girly to you guys? (sorry, no full body pic today, but the last one shows this same chick about a week ago for body type)

In this picture, the chick on the far left:

 

[justmeandtheflock]

The comb looks like my ee girls but they are not barred, just hatchery EE's. My roo's comb was much bigger and redder at that age. I am not expert though. Pretty bird

 

[Year of the Rooster]

Looks like a pullet to me speckledhen

I'd be more focused on the feathers, but I see what ya mean about the comb... But she is kind of light...

 

[onthespot]

I say girl, and that coming from someone who just pulled six, count 'em SIX cockerels out of my fantastic pen full of "pullets" that I had saved back from this spring hatch! Now I only have five new girls to add to my one mama hen!
Some of my pullets are already getting red faces too, even though they are small. Nice pen of birds. We will definitely have to trade eggs later on when this generation gets laying... doncha think?

 

[speckledhen]

This baby is blue, so it's hard to say if she's light or dark. The other blue one has very subtle barring and is darker, but the comb is wider at the back end like many pea combed cockerels have. Both blues look really different from the black barred one, see? This is a definite cockerel, different tail, head, comb, leg thickness, etc. onthespot, sometimes, I get those boy-heavy groups. It's very frustrating when I have no room for more roosters and sometimes, I have to feed them for quite awhile till I can find them homes.

 

[onthespot]

That one in your hand looks suspicious. See the heavier bone structure between the nostril, the eye and the comb? That seems to be my best giveaway when they have not yet grown saddle feathers. All the imposter boys I pulled out had that, some had a LOT more heavy bone in that area. The blues are what tricked me too. I thought it would be nice to have a small representation of blues in my barred flock, but if the point of having barred is to sex early, and you can't sex the blues, it sort of defeats the purpose. I think I still have one blue barred cockerel held back. I am not giving up on having blues. Plus the blue barred father was a VERY NICE marans roo which I since have regretted getting rid of.

By and large I do not try to "find homes" for my roosters unless they are exceptional. I just let them pile up until I am sick of feeding them and make a "chicken run" to someone that lives forty five mintues from here. He eats them. Sometimes I take him a sack of feed and he will feed them out the fifty pounds of feed and that buys them extra time in the mean time. He keeps them well in a huge covered shaded run with plenty of water and food, so hey...

 

[M To The Maxx]

Pullet!!!!

 

[speckledhen]

Yeah, I know that black one is male for sure. The really clear traits of him are making me think the blue in the first pic is female. The darker blue that I dont have current pics of is sort of in the middle. I love the barring on that first chick, though.
onthespot, you have a good system for getting rid of your boys, then. There used to be a guy here who would come get mine when I just had to get rid of them, but last time, he stood me up twice and I dont like waiting...and waiting....and waiting.