Barred Rock identification

[MildlyOffensiveChicken]

I am considering hatching a bunch of barred rock eggs for a friend. The Roo is a barred rock. Unfortunately he has some other brown egg layers in with them. There is no option to separate. Some buff orphingtons, austrolorp, and I think Sussex.

Will there be any trait that will differentiate the barred rock chicks from those breeds. Will they all have the barring?

 

[Bigtom Turkey]

I would think it would be pretty easy to differentiate adult plumage. As chicks it might be harder.

 

[SilverBirds]

The best way to ensure you get Barred Rocks is to only get eggs from the BR hen. You can tell who lays what egg by shell color in some breeds, but it can be difficult if you have birds that lay similar shades. If you can't tell who lays what egg by the shell color, food coloring can be applied to the hen's vent. Whatever eggs the hen lays will have colored streaks from the dye. This way, you know for sure that you get only BR chicks.

 

[Bigtom Turkey]

The food coloring is not fool proof, as the roosters get around if ya know what I mean. But it should definitely help.

 

[McChooky]

I am considering hatching a bunch of barred rock eggs for a friend. The Roo is a barred rock. Unfortunately he has some other brown egg layers in with them. There is no option to separate. Some buff orphingtons, austrolorp, and I think Sussex.

Will there be any trait that will differentiate the barred rock chicks from those breeds. Will they all have the barring?

If he's a pure barred rock rooster all the chicks will be barred too(different colors of course)The barred rock hens will have purebred chicks but the others will be barred mixed breeds.

 

[Mosey2003]

They will all be barred-ish. As chicks, unless some of the hens carry dominant white, they'll all look the same. By about 16-20 weeks you should be able to have a good idea which ones are actually Rocks and which ones aren't, you'll get really mucky barring and typically some leakage of white or red or yellow, typically on the neck and wings. If the Barred Rocks are all hatchery birds rather than standardbred birds it might be a little harder since their barring won't be as crisp to begin with, but you should be able to tell by the time they're mature anyway.