Gender of Barred Rock?

[chickortreat]

A friend of ours hatched us off 10 chicks back in April. Nine were RIR's and one was a Barred Rock. They were hatched at the same time. We were able to tell at about three weeks which RIR's were hens and which were roosters, but now, at twenty weeks, we still can't be sure about the BR. Half the folks who see it call it a hen, and half call it a rooster. From six weeks and on, its comb and wattles were ahead of the RIR hens, but behind the RIR roosters. It has a couple of long tail feathers, but not near as many or as long as the RIR roosters. The RIR's started crowing about three weeks ago, and I haven't heard the BR even try to crow. Two or three folks have told me that they have heard of Barred Rocks turning out to be hermaphrodites. Has anyone else heard of this? Has any one else had a BR with which it was difficult to identify the gender? Thanks for any info...

 

[Hangin Wit My Peeps]

Pictures will tell you right away if they are that old. Roos tend to have more white (Lighter in color) and the hens are darker and will usually get tail feathers long before the roos will. Some say the roos have a larger white spot on the head and hens have a more defined spot but smaller. BUT if you get a pic on here we can tell you for sure. BR hens do get a larger comb. Mine is always called a roo too and she is a hen for sure...seen her lay an egg

 

[speckledhen]

Post a pic and you'll know in a few minutes. Males have wider white bars so look much lighter than hens, with very few exceptions. By about 10 weeks, there would be pointy, shiny saddle feathers coming in on the back.

 

[chickortreat]

How do you post pictures on here?

 

[chickortreat]

I'm not sure if this'll work, but here's a picture...

 

[chickortreat]

C:\\Users\\SCOTT\\Pictures\\2009-09-08 Chickens\\Chickens 002.JPG

 

[chickortreat]

Okay, I'm not doing something right. HELP!!!

 

[chickortreat]

 

[ranchhand]

Go to the Index in the blue bar above, and look at F.A.Q. It has a really good guide for the easy way.

 

[Dustin Biery]

My suggestion is to use a photo hosting site such as Photobucket (http://www.photobucket.com) to upload your pictures to, then copy the IMG code here in your posts. Others use this site as a host, but the pictures are often small and I have trouble seeing them.