Barred Rock: cockerel or pullet?

[Pyxis]

Right. Dominiques show up as a dirtier white rather than a gold. At least that's what I've read in the past.

I think what you're describing is the difference between barred and cuckoo, maybe? Barring is much more crisp and defined. Cuckoo is more 'smudgy' with less clear definition in the transition between the colors.

Also, when out in the sunlight, over time any white on birds can become 'brassy' and look yellowed.

Here's a picture of a very nice dominique cock I took at a show. He won best of breed.

 

[Mosey2003]

I don't know of anyone carrying on a Rose Comb Barred Rock project currently

 

[rebrascora]

Since you picked these up from Tractor supply it is more likely that the mistake was theirs rather than the hatchery they came from. TSC are notorious for mixing chicks up and likely someone else got your BR pullets if they ordered them in specially for you but if you just got them out of a bin at TSC off the cuff there is even more chance of it being their mistake. I'm in the UK and have never set foot in America but from reading these threads I am well aware of how often chicks get mixed up at TSC and people end up with something other than what the label on the bin said or a member of staff told them at TSC.
I guess you will have two more chicken dinners now!

 

[Pyxis]

Since you picked these up from Tractor supply it is more likely that the mistake was theirs rather than the hatchery they came from. TSC are notorious for mixing chicks up and likely someone else got your BR pullets if they ordered them in specially for you but if you just got them out of a bin at TSC off the cuff there is even more chance of it being their mistake. I'm in the UK and have never set foot in America but from reading these threads I am well aware of how often chicks get mixed up at TSC and people end up with something other than what the label on the bin said or a member of staff told them at TSC.
I guess you will have two more chicken dinners now!

Yep, I bought four chicks out of a "Barred Rock Pullets" bin at TSC this spring. Two were barred rocks. Two were dominiques. They don't come in labeled so the workers, who get no training, just guess what they think they are and label them as such.

Oh, and in the same visit I actually bought "leghorn pullets". Which were actually turkeys. I could tell that right away and knew before I bought them but the workers had no clue and just slapped leghorn pullets on them for their label.

 

[Mosey2003]

The swap they're most famous for is sticking black sexlink males in with Barred Rock pullets. That's a real bummer when you figure it out a few weeks down the line.

 

[rebrascora]

Yep, I bought four chicks out of a "Barred Rock Pullets" bin at TSC this spring. Two were barred rocks. Two were dominiques. They don't come in labeled so the workers, who get no training, just guess what they think they are and label them as such.

Oh, and in the same visit I actually bought "leghorn pullets". Which were actually turkeys. I could tell that right away and knew before I bought them but the workers had no clue and just slapped leghorn pullets on them for their label.

I'm guessing the leghorns were cheaper than the turkey poults and you got a good deal out of it as a result??

 

[Cyprus]

Neither Barred Rocks nor Dominiques are auto-sexing. You can kind of tell the differences at hatch by the shape of the head spot and leg wash, but the males and females aren't different colors.

Dominiques were actually a breed before Barred Rocks were, they have a different body shape and their barring is cuckoo rather than the (supposed to be) crisp black and white bars of the Rocks.

That's what I mean by head spots. They are autosexing in that way.
By different colors; my local tsc was selling straight run red sex-links

 

[rebrascora]

my local tsc was selling straight run red sex-links

That is funny. I wonder what they sold all the white(yellow) chicks that were left off as.... white leghorn pullets probably!

 

[Cyprus]

That is funny. I wonder what they sold all the white(yellow) chicks that were left off as.... white leghorn pullets probably!

We have people 'round here who come in and buy up all the males. If not, I'm betting they put them in the Cornish Cross bin.

 

[Mosey2003]

That's what I mean by head spots. They are autosexing in that way.
By different colors; my local tsc was selling straight run red sex-links

I've noticed a lot of places get straight run sexlinks in. If some poor person doesn't know the difference, and the kid doing the picking either doesn't know or doesn't care, it completely defeats the purpose of them!
The head spots on Barred Rocks really aren't that accurate, to me. I've never been able to pick them like that lol. My homebreds I can usually nail down in a few days by leg color and often the males will have a slight silver sheen to them, but they aren't pure hatchery lines either.