My babies turned 3 weeks on Wednesday, and a few of them were scaring me at that point. I saw pink in combs, and wattles coming in. I posted about it in two different areas, here and in "what breed or gender is this", and had little hope of being wrong. It's as if all the tips and tricks to identifying the differences between male and female chicks at a few days old no longer applies.
Out of my 6 chicks, only ONE had no leg wash...the other five had dark gray down the front of their legs and feet. Out of 6 chicks, NONE of them followed the spot on the head clue. Out of 6 chicks, only ONE was light in color...the other five were very dark gray, while the light one was a light gray in color. In other words, the rule of thumb for sexing barred rocks as newbie chicks is a load of doo doo.
You wanna know why I say this? Because as I sat watching my babies tonight in their brooder, I noticed the significant difference in the colors of the feathers...FOUR of my babies had distinct white and dark gray barring. Only TWO of them had mostly dark feathers, where the white that's supposed to be barring kinda blends together with the dark. When they sit side by side, I can see the difference, and it looks like I have 4 cockerels and 2 pullets.
Has anyone else been through this? Expecting only one, or NO cockerels, and ending up with more of them than the pullets? How did you handle it? What did you do???
Here's what I'm talking about...look at the feathers:

Out of my 6 chicks, only ONE had no leg wash...the other five had dark gray down the front of their legs and feet. Out of 6 chicks, NONE of them followed the spot on the head clue. Out of 6 chicks, only ONE was light in color...the other five were very dark gray, while the light one was a light gray in color. In other words, the rule of thumb for sexing barred rocks as newbie chicks is a load of doo doo.
You wanna know why I say this? Because as I sat watching my babies tonight in their brooder, I noticed the significant difference in the colors of the feathers...FOUR of my babies had distinct white and dark gray barring. Only TWO of them had mostly dark feathers, where the white that's supposed to be barring kinda blends together with the dark. When they sit side by side, I can see the difference, and it looks like I have 4 cockerels and 2 pullets.
Has anyone else been through this? Expecting only one, or NO cockerels, and ending up with more of them than the pullets? How did you handle it? What did you do???
Here's what I'm talking about...look at the feathers: