Barred rock roo or pullet?

[grantfamilychicks9316]

First time chicken raisers here ! We purchased our 5 “girls” 4 weeks ago, they are about 5 weeks old, I am starting to think Bo Peep is actually Beau haha any thoughts ? The 2 barred rocks are shown below with our other 3 (2 buff orps, 1 Ameracana) I know there can be mistakes even if they are sold as pullets , we were hoping for all hens though. The chick is very friendly still but more shy and stand off ish than the others for sure. Thanks for the help!

 

[Acre4Me]

It looks like the one Barred Rock that is more white is a male. Males get two copies of barring gene, so the bars are wider. Wider white bars.

 

[MysteryChicken]

Yep, cockerel.

 

[grantfamilychicks9316]

This is what I thought haha soooo ...any tips of roosters ? We have grown attached to him and he’s sweet so far but ....I’m not sure we want to have a male in the mix either !

 

[Acre4Me]

My barred Rock girls are great!! We have not had a male BR yet. We have had a few males so far, and some are great, some not so much. You may need to segregate him for a time if he is too hormone driven somewhere between the ages of 6 months to 11 or 12 months until he matures, but wait and see.

If he does go after you, or your family, be prepared to make a decision on keeping him. If you have little kids or little ones that visit, you may not want to keep a rooster until you are more experienced with chickens, or never - you will still get eggs even without a male. Little kids are at just the right height to get attacked in the face/eyes... if a male is aggressive and sometimes you have no warning before the aggression occurs. We have re-homed a couple of aggressive males. We currently have an A+ male, who is 11 months old and has had many chicken lessons and reprimands from the older rooster (we sold him recently) and older hens. This current 11 month old male is a great flock protector and stays out of our way. He'll have a home with us as long as he continues to be a good boy with the humans (meaning stays away from us and focuses his attention on his flock).

Good Luck!

 

[grantfamilychicks9316]

This is great information !! We do have 3 children a 10 year old 2 and half year old and 1 year old so that was my fear with having a rooster was their aggression and fight for dominance. The girls aren’t bothered one bit by the little hands but the one who we suspect is a cockerel is a bit more firstly and doesn’t enjoy the company. I may call the farm store we got them from they did guarantee sexing and if we weren’t happy we could always return. He can soemrimes
Be sweet but I know it’s not right for our family like you say especially being first time raisers!
I love this site it’s been so helpful !! God Bless

 

[Acre4Me]

This is great information !! We do have 3 children a 10 year old 2 and half year old and 1 year old so that was my fear with having a rooster was their aggression and fight for dominance. The girls aren’t bothered one bit by the little hands but the one who we suspect is a cockerel is a bit more firstly and doesn’t enjoy the company. I may call the farm store we got them from they did guarantee sexing and if we weren’t happy we could always return. He can soemrimes
Be sweet but I know it’s not right for our family like you say especially being first time raisers!
I love this site it’s been so helpful !! God Bless ❤

I’m glad this was helpful! Also I’m glad you can take him back to the store. Enjoy the chickens you have and I hope you get lots of eggs this summer and beyond!