Barred Rock Hen or Rooster?

[Mylied]

x2 junebuggena. I had a whole bunch of black sex linked cockerels and that is what you have.

 

[debid]

One look at the comb told me it isn't a pure barred Rock (see how it has no points?) It's a cockerel with a single barring gene. I don't call them sexlinks because that implies the female parent passed the barring gene and we can't actually tell that.

 

[drumstick diva]

agree with Junebuggena

 

[Crazy for Chickens!]

Also agree with Junebuggena. Cockerel.

 

[Mylied]

One look at the comb told me it isn't a pure barred Rock (see how it has no points?) It's a cockerel with a single barring gene. I don't call them sexlinks because that implies the female parent passed the barring gene and we can't actually tell that.

That's interesting. I always thought sex linked just meant that there was a gene that was linked to sex which could be seen at hatch. Or I suppose when the barring comes in, if they don't get the white dot on their head at hatch.

 

[debid]

That's interesting. I always thought sex linked just meant that there was a gene that was linked to sex which could be seen at hatch. Or I suppose when the barring comes in, if they don't get the white dot on their head at hatch.

It's kinda like how you can't breed ISA Browns to each other to get color sexable chicks. The genes have to be in the right place for sexlinking to occur. If the male is the barred one (and he has two barring genes), all of the chicks will be barred, male or female. No sexlinking at all.

 

[debid]

BTW, people don't call red & white chicks of unknown parentage sexlinks so it's odd to me that a mixed cockerel with a single barring gene would be called one. It implies dishonesty rather than ignorance from the seller as well. Maybe they were cockerel dumping or maybe they just have a barred Rock rooster with an assortment of hens and mistakenly call any that resemble him barred Rocks. That happens often.

 

[junebuggena]

Without knowing the exact source of the bird, I assume that it's hatchery/feed store sourced, since that is how most people obtain their chicks. A black sexlink cockerel would be the most likely 'breed' under those circumstances.
The other birds pictured appear to be Leghorns, which is further confirmation that he didn't come from a random, mixed flock.

 

[speckledhen]

In human sex chromosomes, men have an x and a y chromosome and women have two x-chromosomes. The y-chromosome is shorter, and so men have fewer genes than women do. (One example is the balding gene. If men get one, they're bald, because they only have one copy of that gene. If women get one, the other gene they have on their second sex chromosome might be not-bald. Because not-bald is dominant, the woman won't be bald. That is why women are less likely to be bald.)

In birds, that is reversed. Hens have the v and w chromosomes, whereas the roosters have two w chromosomes. The barred-gene is on the w-chromosome. Because of that, any pure-breed barred rooster will have two copies of the barring gene, leading to the pale, pretty double-barred rooster below: (Stoled from the internet)

Any barred hen, however, can only have one copy of the barring gene. She would look like your rooster in your original post.

Now, a rooster can have one copy of the barring gene--if he was fathered by a rooster without a barring gene, and his mother was barred. That would leave him colored like a traditional hen.

If your chicken above is indeed at ten weeks old, then comb development alone assures me he is male. That means that he cannot be a pure barred-rock because if he was, then he would look like the rooster above.

Hope this helps!

This is the most bizarre coincidence. I had two of that rooster's daughters, still have one who is my oldest hen at almost 11 years old now, and I just got an email from my friend who owned him that she has moved back to GA from Indiana. His picture is still floating around, crazy.

One thing that folks do not tell you is that you can have a cross that looks exactly like a BR pullet, not even like a black sex link cockerel, but it can have decent barring and still be a cross. I had some from that same friend's flock, her Silver Phoenix got into the BR pen and sired some chicks. I thought I had BR pullets for awhile until they got red combs at 3 weeks old. The barring was not bad, either.

The bird in question does appear to be a pure BR at first glance, but the comb and wattles are pretty large for any pullet of that age. Even my 18 week old BR pullets rarely have any that large. There are some males who are darker barred than the norm. Of course, time will tell on the bird in question. Most black sex links are easy to ID, the hackles are silvery, lots of solid black feathers, maybe a few reddish feathers, too.

If a BR was the male parent, he would pass his barring gene to ALL his progeny and the result would not be a sex link at all.

 

[speckledhen]

These two males have the same Delaware sire. The mothers, however, are different. The first one had a very high quality BR hen for a mother. The second one's mother was a red crossbred hen (you would not believe the cross, either) and his barring came from the Delaware side.

This rooster had the same parents as the first rooster, Delaware x BR hen. You almost can't tell he's a cross, almost, except for that solid tail feather and some too-close barring on his upper hackles that looks a tad too silvery.