Boy or Girl Barred Rock?

[speckledhen]

At this age, you cannot tell a black sex link male from a pure BR male, but considering both chicks pictured have lots of dark down the leg fronts, they both, from those pics, appear to be pullets. The pics are really not the best to judge by, though.

http://www.dominiquechicken.com/Sexing_Dominique_chicks.html

This link is good for Barred Rocks, Cuckoo Marans and Dominiques and has very good photos.

 

[VAgal]

Thanks, Speckledhen, that link was very helpful. For the chick in question, her spot is a bit diffuse but I'm going to hope it is more girlish, and her legs are definitely black, but her feet are yellow. I guess, ultimately, I'll just have to wait and see.

 

[speckledhen]

Well, the "wait and see method" is always the most exact.

Sexing rules for barred varieties are accurate for about 90% of the birds. Some don't follow the rules.

 

[corgiscatsandchickens]

For what it's worth, I say wait and see. Ours are hatchery chicks, all supposed to be gals. Here are three as babies. One of them is a roo. NOT the one in the middle!

The one on the far left started life as Madge. Now, 22 weeks later, here's Madge:

And here digging up my yard to take a dust bath:

He still has the dark wash down the front of his legs, and he's very dark compared to a lot of BR Roos, but rooster he is! All the others are girls-including the chick with all the white on her face in the photo--she's one of our best layers!

Sometimes ya just gotta wait them out. Good luck!

 

[VAgal]

Ours,(Millicent), looks a lot like the one you have on the far right. The rooster looks much lighter as a chick (although that may be the lighting). It's given me hope at least. With a flock of just 6 I'm really hoping one isn't a roo.

 

[angie3881]

All of my Barred Rocks had spots and speckles or were completely black. They were very different. They all turned out to look the same. Half were male, half were female. At this age it is too soon to tell. Some Barred Rocks are impossible to tell until they start crowing or laying.

 

[corgiscatsandchickens]

Quote:
It's the flash. They were all really dark!

We love him though. So far very sweet. Hope he stays that way.

I have a theory that since hatcheries cull the majority of the light colored roos (the ones that are easy to spot), that eventually the majority of barred rock roos will be darker, since they come in under the radar, so to speak and a lot of us will let our hens set. Who will be the daddy? Mr Dark Roo, passing his genes to the next generation!

 

[speckledhen]

Actually, 90% of Barred Rocks are easily sexed in the first week of life. I do it all the time and am rarely wrong since I've raised them for years, but sexing in a photo is much harder due to the flash washing out color, etc. It must be in natural daylight, not brooder light or indoor light, to be most accurate.


Even BR cockerels have some dark color on the legs as babies, but it's splotchier and not as dark and consistent all down the legs as with pullets. There is also a difference in common hatchery stock and breeder/show stock.

 

[VAgal]

Quote:
Not too much natural light around here today.

This is the best I could do with a crummy camera.

 

[speckledhen]

Ok, in that picture, it looks more male. There is a little color on the leg fronts, but very little. The head spot looks wide, but can't tell-is there a band of "frosting" around the back of the head where the head spot sort of extends across that area? If so, I'd say cockerel.

With Barred Rocks being color sexed, you really do need clear natural light photos or there's no way to be accurate. I know how hard that is, too! I've deleted thousands of blurry pictures of them over the years.