Gender help on barred Please

[Abunari]

These are my first chickens and I was wondering if I can get someone to give me a ball park on my genders. I got 12 hoping to gets to least six females out of the bunch...not so sure I did lol. Thanks

 

[Abunari]

Sorry slight correction they are barred rock chicks

 

[21hens-incharge]

The ones with the smaller white spots should end up being your girls. It is not 100% accurate more like 80% but is a starting point. Other than that you will have to wait and see.

Welcome to the sometimes frustrating chicken world.

 

[Abunari]

Lol thanks im sure it will drive me crazy so i will wait and post more when they are bigger think they are 3 days old today. Is it true i should only keep one of the males ?

 

[21hens-incharge]

If all you have are 12 chickens and one is a male the hen to rooster ratio is good. If you have 12 chickens and 2 are males it can be hard on the hens since roosters can be rather rough with them.
Roosters can also be aggressive toward each other to gain the top spot and guarantee their personal position in carrying on their genes. These fights can be bloody.
I have had multiple roosters BUT I had 30 hens and 2 roosters the hens were full size Australorp and the roosters were docile bantam breeds. I had ended up with extra roosters by pure chance once when buying out of an unsexed lot at the feed store and it was a disaster. I had 5 out of 5 turn out to be roosters. One I kept since he was not even in the right bin and turned out to be docile. The other 4 beat the living daylights out of the one rooster I already had.
The Japanese black tail rooster lost an eye and had his comb nearly torn off. I tell you this so you are forewarned how brutal the attacks can be.
The 4 oops roosters were all silkies and became soup. The second docile rooster that had been in the wrong bin turned out to be a very docile bantam red cochin.

I personally advise against keeping more than one rooster per every 10 hens and caution that if you do have more hens and roosters you may need additional coops/runs for them.

Just my 2 cents on keeping roosters. I am sure others have had different experiences and may advise differently.

By the way it looks like in the pics you have mostly female if the dot on the head thing is correct.

 

[BantamLover21]

The ones with the smaller white spots should end up being your girls. It is not 100% accurate more like 80% but is a starting point. Other than that you will have to wait and see.

Welcome to the sometimes frustrating chicken world.

Agreed.

 

[Wyandottes7]

The ones with the smaller white spots should end up being your girls. It is not 100% accurate more like 80% but is a starting point. Other than that you will have to wait and see.

Welcome to the sometimes frustrating chicken world.

X3

You'll know better when they feather in. Males are usually light in color, while the females are darker.

 

[Abunari]

I had the same assumption also. If I get more than one roo ill just have to rehome them. My hubby suggested a trip to the stock pot but I don't know if I can do that lol.

 

[newwestchick]

If your hubby can, barred rock cockerels are fairly good size by 16 weeks and not yet getting aggressive usually. You could make the decision then but I would suggest not naming them... They're more friendly than the pullets while they're young, it can be hard to stay detached. I feel that if they had a wonderful life with me before I eat them, then I did them justice and their life had purpose

 

[Egghead_Jr]

Along with the head spots you can look at leg color and size.

Females will have dark wash on front of legs and cockerels will have larger legs. Using all three of those markers will get you well over 90% guessing of sex.