Barred Rock Gender and a weird Aussie (I think it's weird)

[joerogrz]

So when I ordered my Black Australorp chicks from McMurray, I asked them to send me one of their free "Rare and Exotic" chicks. What I discovered a few days after I had received them, was that I had three extra chicks. One of the Aussies died within 48 hours and I didn't think anything of it since they had sent me three extra not including the "Rare" one. I thought the other three were Aussies, but I'm pretty sure they are BR's now. I'm curious about the gender though.

I read in some posts that the females may grow longer tail feathers in the beginning, so I'm posting some pics to see what everyone else thinks. I think I have two BR Cockerels and a BR pullet. I should mention also that the two I think are males also have slightly redder combs and wattles than the other.

Also one of my Aussies has a totally different look than the rest. I didn't think they would have so much brown like this.

And just because I like to show them off, another pic with the unknown "rarity".

And just for fun.. A pic of the "Runt" with some of the others.

 

[cluckychick]

I would say that one in the 3rd pic is not an australorp. Sorry I can't help you with gender on the BR's. Hopefully someone will come along who will

You have some cute chicks

 

[mikarod]

Barred Rocks...look like males. Remind me of male black sex-links. "Packing peanuts."

The black bird with brown...looks like a Black Sex Link pullet. She should have been black and birth WITHOUT a head spot, and the "Barred Rocks" should have had a white head spot.

Female black sex-links: No spot.
Male black sex-links: spot

 

[PotterWatch]

Quote:
I agree.

 

[joerogrz]

The brown/black chick didn't have a head spot, but the 3 BR's did. I didn't realize that about the Australorps when I got them and had no idea until I started researching the BR's more.

Do Sex Links have the same green/purple sheen in their feathers as the Australorps?

 

[okiehen]

Do Sex Links have the same green/purple sheen in their feathers as the Australorps?

Mine do, and are great layers.​

 

[joerogrz]

If the brown/black chick is a sex link there is another that may be one also. It has a lot less brown on it, but when it first arrived, it had quite a bit of brown on it, especially around the head.

If these are sex links, McMurray sent me two sex links instead of Australorps in addition to the extra three and the red chick.

So my next question is, are the three that I think are BR's actually sex links?

 

[cjstanman]

I initially got what I thought were 6 BRs back in August. I bought 5, and the guy threw in an extra one. At that point, they all looked the same. It turns out I have 5 BRs and 1 Black Australorp (I think). Here are pics as they matured (trying to keep the pics small, trying to figure out how to get them to enlarge if you click on them). I am clueless about the whole feather thing still but I am darn sure I've got 2 BR boys and the rest seem to be girls, ha ha!

3 days old:


12 days old:


3 weeks old:


4 weeks old:


6 weeks old (boy):


6 weeks old (girls):


7 weeks old (boy):


7 weeks old (BR girl):


7 weeks old (BA girl):

 

[mikarod]

In all honesty...I doubt they're barred rocks.

Barred Rocks are supposed to have yellow legs. Your birds should have yellow legs by this point. So, I'm sticking to it and thinking that your males are black sex-link males.

 

[joerogrz]

Mikarod- I hate to bug you any further, but from the pics above, do you think my Australorps are what they're supposed to be? Needless to say, if the ones that have brown on them are sex links and the extras are also, I'm a little upset about this.

Here is a photo of the largest one.