Dark Barred Rock Feet

[desertgirl]

My two BRs (about 3 weeks old) both have dark legs, no trace of orange. Will try to get pic later.

Their head spots are relatively small and tight.

But their head gear is slightly pink. After my last Hillary>Hank experience, evryone looks like a roo to me now.

Any words of reassurance? Any other tricks for sexing BRs at this age?

 

[RasMama]

I thought with Barred Rocks that a dark mark down the front of their legs was a sign of a pullet? My BR (pullet) is about 4 weeks now, still has the dark fronts to her legs & her legs aren't orange either. She has a little comb (compared to the EEs at least), but no color to it yet.

 

[Chris09]

by rights neather sex should have black down the leg..
They should be yellow just like the white rocks..
Alot of "hatchery" bared rocks" have black leg and bad baring.
chris

 

[giasmom]

Quote:
Have never heard this before. All my pullet chicks have the dark legs, however my hens do not.
BTW, neither do my cockerels.

 

[speckledhen]

Historical Document
Kansas Agricultural Experiment Station

SEX IDENTIFICATION IN PUREBREDS
BARRED PLYMOUTH ROCKS

It had long been recognized that the size of the light head
spots in Barred Plymouth Rocks varied in the two sexes. The
males tend to have larger headspots and the females to have
darker colored legs. However, this method has not been sufficiently
accurate to be of much commercial value.
Quinn and Knox (1939) attempted to separate the sexes of
Barred Plymouth Rocks by means of the intensity of the black
pigment in the down and legs. In different lots of chicks they
report 83.5, 86.1 and 91.8 percent accuracy.
Jerome (1939) describes a method of sex identification in
Barred Plymouth Rocks based upon the regularity of the outline
of the head spot rather than the size of the spot. Those chicks
having headspots irregular in outline and scattered in appearance
are males while the females tend to have headspots with
more regular outlines. The author claimed an accuracy of 90
percent or better when considering only the headspot and 95
percent if the color of the legs was included in the consideration.
The Canadian Department of Agriculture (Anonymous 1941)
issues an excellently illustrated bulletin describing the method.
It is stated in the bulletin that the method “is widely practiced
in Barred Rock chicks by commercial chick sexers.” Sex identification
is based upon outline of head spot, color of legs and
shade of down color. There are several types of male and female
head spots some of which are shown in Figure 1.​

 

[m2wandc]

I've always heard small white spots and dark legs = girlie girl...but I'm no expert...

 

[Barnyard]

My Barred rock pullet's alway's have darker legs than my roo's. I am not a very good head spot sexer

 

[sparkles2307]

Um so we have a LOT of "Barred Rock" that came in our mixed roo order from Cackle. There are 3 that are more black with white spots (like the bird in this link http://www.moorlandspoultry.co.uk/ximages/livestock/cuckoo-maran.jpg) and significantly smaller in size than the others. The other 20 or so of the barred ones look like the bird in THIS link http://www.helmsteadstables.com/BRRoo3.07.2.jpg and are about 1/2 again larger than these 3 odd ones. We are just looking at the barring here not the hen/roosterness. They are 4.5 weeks old... they all seem to have the black marking down the front of their legs...and I havent decided if they have yellow, or creamy colored legs....

 

[walkswithdog]

Quote:

WHAT CYN posted...

Barred rocks should have dark fronts to their legs, the girls darker.

Partridge Rocks should have a bronze/brown front to their legs, usually the girls darker.
Black rocks have dark fronts to their legs as do BLUES. Only white and columbians have purely yellow legs. I haven't seen splash but wouldn't be surprised if they had a gray or slate front.

All of them should have bright yellow underneath and yellow foot bottoms. No these are not mixed, and it's been written in the standard (with the exception of blue/black/splash) since at least 1915 because that's the first one I have.

Some slight red is permitted on PR legs as well.

 

[desertgirl]

Thanks, all. Great info, as always-and it makes me feel more hopeful that my girls are ,in fact, girls!