Barred Rock Chicks Need Sexing

[JillsChicks]

Can everyone agree on how to tell Plymouth barred rock chicks apart?

Here's what I've read on pullets -

- will have black on fronts of legs and feet
- will feather out more quickly
- will have distinct spot on their heads
- the head spot will be white?

On roos, I've read -

- slower feathering
- a grayer barring than hens
- will pull up if you gently hold them upside down by their feet?!

Any other hints or tips? Three of my chicks have yellow head spots - one has a white spot. I need to give two of my four away to a friend in a couple of weeks and I don't want to give her a roo. Thanks soooo much!

 

[NoSpringChick]

I heard that the Roos are lighter in color....other than that, I'm interested also.

 

[ChickNLittle]

Hey Jill

Your doing good so far.

Usually the best thing is the spot on the head. I'm not sure about the yellow on the head. But I"ll bet they are pullets, just like the one with the white spot. Maybe someone else will know about the yellow.

 

[beefy]

roos tend to be silverish, larger headspot. yellow legs

pullets tend to have darkish on the front of legs, smaller well defined headspot or large not defined at all LOL, and they do seem to feather quicker.

i'm not sure that the picking them up thing is very accurate but i havent tested that one.

almost always you have to use a combination of these. no one trait is most accurate.

 

[rooster-red]

The thing about holding them upside down is a myth.

Males will have thicker legs, females get tail feathers before males.
Females are darker colored than the males.

The black wash down the legs is not always a good indicator, I have 3 chicks right now that all have a nice black wash down the legs... but 2 are roo's.

 

[beefy]

lets see them Red.

 

[rooster-red]

Quote:
You knew I'd have pics didn't you!

Looking through my pics, will post some soon.

 

[rooster-red]

The ones in the upper left and lower right are roo's, the one in the middle is a girl.

Here are the same birds as they've gotten a little older, then hen is in the upper right.
You can see the black wash down the front of the boys legs.

 

[NoSpringChick]

Rooster-Red...that was really helpful, thanks for the pictures. I love pictures....

 

[JillsChicks]

Dear Rooster Red -

Thanks for the great photos. You look a little like Bruce Willis holding that opossum! What pics!

I thought on your chick pics that the chick in the lower right corner would be a female... She has the white head spot and pretty quick feathering - but she turned out to be a he?!

My fourth chick is starting to feather more now, but "she" is still far behind the other three chicks. They all have head spots and black down their legs. I'll post their pics here again for you to see. Oh, and your barred rock roo is beautiful!

Here is the chick with slow feathering (no tail feathers showing yet at two weeks old)

Here is one of the chicks with fast feathering at two weeks