Barred Rock Rooster?

bellmare

Chirping
6 Years
Oct 20, 2013
62
8
71
Las Vegas
This barred rock was sold to me at 8-10 weeks as a sexed pullet. I know hatcheries make mistakes but when I bought her I was confident based on her dark washed legs, darker coloring and pale pink comb she was a hen. She or he is now 14-16 weeks old and huge, with a bright red comb and wattles and I could swear I see saddle feathers developing. Am I crazy or is this a rooster? I thought roosters were lighter overall (distinctive bars) with obviously yellow legs but I'm thinking I just have a boring looking cockerel. Lol Perhaps it's just a very mature pullet? No crowing to speak of yet, and no mounting but he/she stands tall and has a dominant attitude.
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I have one like that too. She has more narrow feathering overall and is very dark. She lays pretty brown eggs. Barred Rocks are pretty fast to mature generally. If that comb didn't turn red until 14 weeks, it's a pullet.
 
Do you know what her exact age was (in weeks) when the comb turned bright red? The dark barring definitely says, pullet, so without more definite info on the comb, and despite its size and redness, I'm leaning toward pullet.
 
Thanks all for the replies! Unfortunately this morning I heard some very distinctive beginning crowing out in the coop. Although I didn't directly see the culprit my only other rooster is just barely 8 weeks old at this point and hasn't developed the bright red comb or wattles, so I think this one might be a rooster after all. It's very true that this one hadn't developed such a bright red comb until recently, but his/her voice had deepened over the last week.


This is the photo of the same chicken I was sold as a hen, at 10 weeks. I know it's very blurry and very small but I was going off of the dark coloration and though the comb looked a little large for 10 weeks, I wasn't especially worried. It was this pink until about a week ago, then bright red. I just thought I had a fast maturing pullet.
 

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