Cream Legbar Slow Growing Rooster or Hen?

[Jojosine]

Hi there
Harvey hatched 4 months ago and had a kind of stripe on his (?) head, so I assumed he is a rooster. But he doesn't have any sign of a comb just yet.

Is he just a slow developer or secretly a girl?

I would like him to be a rooster as I want to breed next Spring

 

[Peaches Lee]

Looks like a hen to me! But don't be sad she's not a rooster, she's absolutely beautiful!

 

[Rhodebar Lover]

He's a cockerel for sure

 

[Tonyroo]

I thought CLB roosters are mainly white with a little ghost barring.

 

[JedJackson]

100% a cockerel.

 

[Aunt Angus]

100% a cockerel.

Because of the red on the shoulders?

 

[JedJackson]

Because of the red on the shoulders?

Yes and the double barring.

 

[HollowOfWisps]

Definitely a male. In your first picture as a chick he has the male specific color/pattern for cream leg bars. In your second picture he has the lighter color, red shoulder and double barring specific to still maturing cream legbar cockerels.

 

[Jojosine]

@JedJackson @HollowOfWisps
Thank you for confirming!
He doesn't know it yet, but he is meant to father the next generation, although he is still being told off by his future girls.
I'm sure when he is a grown cockerel, he will get back to them

Can I ask: what is 'double barring'?

 

[JedJackson]

@JedJackson @HollowOfWisps
Thank you for confirming!
He doesn't know it yet, but he is meant to father the next generation, although he is still being told off by his future girls.
I'm sure when he is a grown cockerel, he will get back to them

Can I ask: what is 'double barring'?

The way that the barring gene works in chickens is that the female can only have one copy and the male can have two copies if he comes from both a barred mother and father. This is the reason that barred females appear darker and the males appear lighter.

For an example of how it works, we have sex links. Both black sex links and blue sex links like Sapphire gems are made by crossing a barred female with a non-barred male. Since the barred female has only one barring gene, not all of her offspring when crossed with a non-barred male will have barring. It just so happens that a barred female crossed with a non-barred male always passes her single barring gene onto male offspring and never female offspring. So at birth the chicks can be sexed with 100% accuracy, because the males will have the head spot that's always present in barred chicks and the females will not. These male offspring would be single barred and darker, like barred females.

Now, if you crossed a pure, double barred rooster over a non-barred hen, all of the offspring would be single barred. This is because that male has two barring genes, and will always pass one off to his chicks, including female chicks. All offspring would then be single barred.