Cream Legbars. Are these pullets or cockerels?

[Mountain Peeps]

100% males

 

[donrae]

I know these two creams turned out to be cockerels but what about the 2 red ones? I suspect they may also. Any thoughts from the photos? I know the farmer did not intentionally sell them to me knowing they were cockerels as I can exchange any of them if they turn out to be roo's . I'm planning on returning the 2 creams but I'm not sure on these other 2. The other 4 I got at the same time are layings eggs. He is not to far from me but I would like to ID all the cockerels to exchange them all at the same time.

Thank you in advance.

The two red/brown birds appear to be pullets, but not Legbars. Maybe Rhodebars, or maybe just mutts, it's hard to say from the pics.

The purpose of any breed or hybrid ending with "bar" is to able to sex the chick at hatch. Anyone selling you a "bar" bird and saying they can't tell the difference is either deliberately deceiving you, or seriously needs to educate themselves on what they're doing.

 

[usedhobarts]

Thanks for the info. The farmer I got these from is not stating specific breeds persay. The red/brown ones he said came from a wellsumer. Most of his birds are barnyard mix as he is kind of the go to place around here for rescue birds. He takes in chickens from those , who for some reason, can longer take care of them. He has several hundred chickens and about same in both ducks and geese. It's quite the site. He has never stated to me specifically breeds other than the RIRs and the Barred rocks he does breed. The last batch I got from him was an attempt for me to get some color eggs. I got the two creams, 2 wellsummers(?), 2 reds and two easter eggers. Of those 8 the two creams turned out to be roo's. The Reds are laying strong now. One of the easter eggers got killed by a chicken hawk and the other is laying a sort of pinkish brown egg.

These two wellsummers are acting a little like roo's which is why I posted their pics to see I someone with more knowledge could tell.

I have a total of 28 birds presently. I have a beautiful mutt roo that is super friendly and I only have him as eye candy and a flock protector. I'm debating on keeping 1 of those cream roosters as they look like they will be gorgeous also. Here is a couple more photos of the wellsummers. One day I'm sure they are pullets and then I see them fluffing out their neck feathers when the creams are play sparring. I have never seen a hen do that. Those 4 are hooked to gather at the hip persay. Since their arrival 6 weeks ago they are always togather. They roost togather all the time and even during day free ranging they are always within a few feet of each other.

I'm hoping they are pullets but I need to return the for sure roo's soon as I don't want them to start fighting. I'm not going to hatch my own eggs nor breed. With that in mind I'm not picky on breeds or mutts. I guessing 1/3 of my flock are mutts. I'm just looking for happy healthy egg layers. I provide eggs for several struggling families in the area and increased my flock size to make sure I could maintain the 8- 10 dozen a week average over the winter.

Do you still think these two wellsumer looking birds are pullets from these better pics?

Thanks

 

[donrae]

Yep, those are pullets for sure.

 

[chicken pickin]

Hello everyone. I am new here but have a question about the 10 chickens I took in. I was told they were cream leg bars. I was also told that 5 were pullets and 5 were cockerels. But 9 out of the 10 look like cockerels. Could you guys let me know what you think by the few pictures I could get of them. Thanks!

These are in fact all cockerels with the exception of what looks like one pullet in pics 1 and 2 that is leaning downward.

Cream Legbar are easily sexable as chicks and all the way through adult hood, never is it hard to differentiate. The person who sold them to you should have known what they were selling you.

 

[chicken pickin]

Hi, my research tells me that cream leg bars are easily sexed when chicks. Hens will have the defined chipmunk strips down the back as chicks. I recently received a group of what I thought were pullets but the two cream legbars both turned out to be roo's. From your pics it looks like you have at least several hens. My understanding is the hens will have larger cresting feathers versus smaller. A tell tale sign is the formation of Spurs. You can see in my pics of the legs. As I stated I was told these were pullets when I bought them but it is very clear now they are roo's. Mine were maybe just a bit older than yours appear. The roo's if they were hens would be just about starting to lay. These were late March early April hatchlings. Yours look closer to late May or so hatchlings. I'm certainly no expert. I would just watch the legs close and their behavior and you should be able to tell soon.

Unfortunately your cockerels are not Cream Legbar, at least not pure. Your cockerels have red earlobes, pure Cream Legbars have white earlobes ( see my cockerel in my profile pic).

As for sexing chipmunk striping can be on both sexes as chicks though the do appear different if you know what your looking for. Tell tale sign on chicks is large head splotches on males heads(females sometimes do have very small head dots). Also the size of crest feathers is not a correct way to determine sex, both can have very large crests as well as very small crests.