Barred rock: hen or rooster?

[Judith71]

Light is a rooster.

 

[silkiez4life]

Looks like a rooster

 

[wantedman66]

Usually you can look for certain traits when sexing barred rocks but when it comes to hatchery ones you can throw those out the window because there much harder to sex than from a breeder.Generally the things to look for is the males have a lighter leg wash,there comb starts to develop in a few weeks they have a taller stance and you will notice there legs are becoming thicker and they begin to get taller than the females,all these features are usually noticeable within the first month and by 6 weeks you can be almost positive on the sex,but like I said hatchery chicks can be more difficult and take longer to tell.

 

[pfrosty]

It's definitely a rooster. The comb is already starting to get red at only three weeks old. Bummer.

 

[Alvordhens]

Don't kill your sweet hen! She's about to lay eggs!!!

 

[chickenlady56]

Preparing a rooster for a family dinner is a great way to honor his life. I always say thank you when sacrificing a feathered friend.

 

[Mrs parker]

Size and color of comb... rooster

 

[speckledhen]

I have three barred rocks two I know are hens but I am not so sure about optical illusion. Here he she is.


I do not keep him in the house that's just where the camera was . If anybody knows I would greatly appreciate any information.

Are you 100% sure on the age of this bird??? I see NOTHING that says male on it. Tail length means nothing, really. Pullets have one or two longer feathers as "teens" but molt them out. There is also body shape, head shape. Yours really veers toward female.

Yes, it's lighter than most pullets, yes, the comb is larger, HOWEVER, I see ZERO skinny, shiny saddle or hackle feathers. Looks just like the first ever BR hen I had that everyone said was a cockerel. I was a novice then, but she turned out to be the mother of many--cockerels were as light as she was. That was my own Lexie, long passed on now.

Barred Rock sexing rules are not 100% accurate. That bird, if it's really 15 weeks or older, doesn't seem to have any male feathering traits, so don't be so fast to kill it. All I'm saying is that some take a bit longer to be sure because they didn't read their breed manuals and bucked all the rules like my Lexie did. I've raised many, many BR cockerels since Lexie, but they always have saddle feathers by 15 weeks of age. That one, at least in the photos, doesn't seem to have them.

Lexie as a pullet:


Lexie on the left with Ivy on the right--see the huge difference between the two pullets? Just showing how the same sex can be very different. Lexie was called a cockerel by quite a few folks on BYC. We were all fooled until she was about 12-14 weeks old and wasn't growing a huge comb nor did she get pointy male saddle feathers.











I was fooled only once by a slightly feminine looking cockerel, coincidentally one of Lexie's sons, but by 12 weeks, he had his saddle feathers coming in. Those are what you must look for, not comb size or plumage color primarily, though those can be indicators on the barred varieties.

Here are the saddles, the one thing pullets will never have:

 

[goatman303]

If darkness has anything to do about it, than i'm now starting to wonder about my other barred rock which is light gray.

This is detonate rooster. White dot on its head

 

[speckledhen]

If darkness has anything to do about it, than i'm now starting to wonder about my other barred rock which is light gray.

THIS one is a cockerel, no question at all in my mind. BUT, remember, that BR sexing rules don't always work. They are pretty accurate with hatchery stock mostly. This guy in the photo already shows comb development so I'm not going only by plumage color. You also need to see the leg fronts.

Sexing BRs depends on three factors, taken together, not just one. My own first BR pullet, Lexie, blew them all. She had lighter plumage, not much dark on the leg fronts, huge head spot and was the mother of many chicks over the years.