Barred Rock pullets or Black Sex Link cockerals?

[AmyPaperlady]

They will be 5 weeks old this week. I could only get close pictures of one of the two, but they are identical development-wise.

 

[Chicken Girl1]

What color is its feet?

 

[BantamLover21]

Cockerel.

 

[Wyandottes7]

Cockerel.

x2

 

[AmyPaperlady]

What color is its feet?

Went back out to get pics...

 

[Toddrick]

x2

x3 - because of waddle appearing

As to the color, a pure BR cockerel should have more white than black, and since it has much more black I am guessing it is not a pure bred. Is that what a BSL cockerel is supposed to look like?

 

[donrae]

Yep, a bsl cockerel only has one barred parent, so only one copy of the barring gene. Thus, the "rules" of sexing pure bred barred birds are tossed out the window. BSL cockerels are colored identical to pure bred pullets, both hetro for barring.

I'm leaning toward cockerel but would give it another few weeks just to be sure. My bsl boys had more comb at this age.

 

[Toddrick]

Yep, a bsl cockerel only has one barred parent, so only one copy of the barring gene. Thus, the "rules" of sexing pure bred barred birds are tossed out the window. BSL cockerels are colored identical to pure bred pullets, both hetro for barring.

I'm leaning toward cockerel but would give it another few weeks just to be sure. My bsl boys had more comb at this age.

Yea I keep hearing that they get waddles and combs much sooner than other standard breeds.

Since you are familiar with barring, could you please check out this thread and take a guess at the possible breeding and if I'm at all on the right track in my thinking?

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/987875/need-help-with-gender-and-breed-please

 

[AmyPaperlady]

I suppose I could give a little background, to at least explain why I'm unsure which I have (I was 90+% sure I had BR pullets until the wattle starts showed up).

My hen had gone broody, and I was being a bit too picky about eggs--so much so that she'd been sitting about a month before she got eggs. She'd been broody for the first time last fall, and been a great mom with the free eggs I'd gotten from a friend (all of which turned out to be cockerals--2 RSL and 1 BSL) so I felt confident in getting her eggs that I wanted, not just a test batch. The postal service was not kind. Despite an excellent packing job, all the eggs had detached air cells, and a couple were scrambled. I still say that had to do with wedging the box into the mail box instead of bringing it to the door... Anyway, my hen stopped sitting after 5 weeks with no chicks. Unfortunately, that was day 11, and I had no backup incubator. I did manage to borrow an incubator, but by the time the eggs went in , they'd been cold for over 40 hours. I also had no hygrometer. Needless to say, nothing hatched.

Since my daughters (and I) were disappointed, I picked up some chicks from the feed store a couple hours after they received their shipment from the hatchery. Since I knew that they wouldn't be getting anything I actually wanted, I thought I'd be smart and get something I could turn around and sell once the chicks didn't need heat anymore. So I got 2 RSL pullets and 2 BR pullets. Now, the hatchery that the chicks came from does BSL as well as BR, and I'm pretty sure that the lady at the feed store had said they were getting BSL in as well as the BR (and other breeds, but that's not important right now) but I don't actually remember. I probably should've gotten all RSL... Actually, now that I think about it, if she had said she was getting BSL pullets in as well, I probably would've gone that route instead of the BR, just because of the added surety. Hm. Anyway, here's some photos of them when I first got them:

 

[Chicken Girl1]

Yes that is a Black sex link cockerel.