Barred Rock - hen or rooster? RESULT = HEN

[rodriguezpoultry]

Quote:
Feral, that is a black sex-link male. The pointed saddle feathers behind you or your sons' arm is evidence enough.

RnR farms, yours is a female.

 

[speckledhen]

She had an extra large comb as a chick, which really confused the issue, though she did have pullet coloring. Glad it's a girl!

 

[RnRFarms]

thank you so much for replies!! Ok ok forgive a novice....so is it the overall coloring and leg color the definitive (if there is such a thing

) answer in BR gender definition? I mean apart from the obvious crowing and egg laying? And why ( again forgive my lack of knowledge) is it possible for 15 birds from the same hatchery and the same age when purchased (3 day old pullets) seem to be maturing at such different rates? I have eight hens (fairly certain) with little to no comb or waddles and what there is is pale pink. And 7 (have no clue) others with quite developed combs and waddles, that are bright red. Yet almost all are the darker coloring (head & neck) and almost all legs are showing a dark wash down the front. Only one or two show the lighter real yellow legs. I am sooo confused. And I got another egg today small but beautifully shaped! I know I should probably just be patient and time will tell....but well I am sure you all know how addicting these feathered kids can be!!! SO I am gonna go with "it's a girl" and maybe then she'll stop laughing at me!

 

[halo]

The saddle feathers (or lack of) are the dead giveaways with Barred Rocks. They can develop at different rates and have different combs, even from a single hatchery. They are hatching a LOT of birds that come from a lot of different places, so its not like its a closed gene pool. They might get eggs from 3 or 4 different farms. Just watch for those saddle feathers, they are very obvious on a Barred Rock boy.

 

[speckledhen]

At 8 weeks, some of them can be a bit confusing if they are dark for a cockerel or have a larger or pinker than normal comb for a girl. Saddle feathers come in after that age usually, which always means a rooster, but 90% of the time, males are much lighter than females. lockedhearts has a rooster from my flock that is extremely dark and had us confused for ages!

 

[neferset]

When do they start developing the saddle feathers on average? I got some "Ameraucana Sexlink" hatching eggs this summer and was surprised to see the eggs were blue. Either it was 2nd (or more) generation or the sexlink wasn't done right. As I understood it, it would have had to be an Ameraucana rooster over a Barred Rock hen, but I could be wrong???

As with everyone else, hope spring eternal that I somehow hatched 3 girls instead of 3 boys despite the evidence of the "sexlink." My "boys" are 7 weeks old, have tiny tiny combs and almost no wattles to speak of and are dark in color than my for certain Barred Rock boys.