Barred Rocks!!

[slordaz]

Mr. Pibbs will be a very old rooster right now he's only 2 months old lol can't say so much though for any more that come along naturally though has all 4 hens now think he belongs to them lol

 

[DesertChic]

Mr. Pibbs will be a very old rooster right now he's only 2 months old lol can't say so much though for any more that come along naturally though has all 4 hens now think he belongs to them lol

Just wait until he picks his favorite girl. Mine chose the absolute shyest of my Australorps and rides her multiple times per day. The poor girl's saddle feathers are just gone and she's so shy she won't let me put a saddle on her....and then he charges me when I try because he wants to protect her. Chickens are awesome...but not always cooperative.

 

[slordaz]

as long as it ain't the duck lol

 

[junebuggena]

Here are some my girls. 16 weeks old. Some have started to grow big waddles and combs are starting to pink up.


My most developed one. My daughter named her Mickey Mouse.

 

[DesertChic]

Here are some my girls. 16 weeks old. Some have started to grow big waddles and combs are starting to pink up.


My most developed one. My daughter named her Mickey Mouse.

Nice birds! They appear to be maturing beautifully!

 

[Treegod]

Last year I bought two Barred Rock "hens". We called the Trancas and Barrancas, which are the name of two ant puppet character on a tv show here in Spain. Unfortunately one turned out to be a cockerel, which we suspected but didn't quite have the confidence to reject it. The woman in the shop told us they were Barred Rocks, and the pattern on one was a "slightly different variation" (should we have been suspicious already?). I saw its comb and tail, which strongly suggested it was male, and we asked. "No, no, they're both female." We took them home and waited... and it was male. This is the second time this has happened in this shop, and I reckon they do it one purpose. Won't complain, we go to a nicer place with nicer people now.

Oh well, we now have a pair of Barred Rocks, and we had two old cockerels die over the winter, so our one survivor now has male company once again. We'll be breeding chicks from them, too, and we almost had one, but I suspect it was the egg that didn't hatch. Nice addition to the mixed flock, all the same.

 

[slordaz]

Treegod, I noticed my hens are darker appearing compared to my rooster, but again this is my first time with this breed, What is really nice is the rooster is pretty good even with newer babies but as they get older and there is a rooster in the RIR's have to separate them more. He did really good for first couple of weeks and even protected them but by week 3 almost 4 he is becoming bossy with them and occasionally pecking them if they try to go out to free range with the older chicks

 

[rfreedlund]

I noticed my hens are darker appearing compared to my rooster,

From my understanding, that is because the gene that causes the barring effect is only passed on by the male. He in essence has two copies of the gene, while the girls only have one. This causes the barring effect to be much more evident on the males of the breed than the females giving them a whiter appearance.

 

[junebuggena]

Not entirely correct. The barred hens pass one copy to their sons, but none to their daughters. This is why black sexlinks work. The males pass their barring gene to both males and females. Girls only get the one gene from their fathers, while boys get one gene each from both mother and father.

 

[rfreedlund]

Not entirely correct. The barred hens pass one copy to their sons, but none to their daughters. This is why black sexlinks work. The males pass their barring gene to both males and females. Girls only get the one gene from their fathers, while boys get one gene each from both mother and father.

Thanks for the clarification. That helps my understanding, too.