Help I think i have a rooster

[BYC Lover123]

I recently picked up 5 barred rock pullets that are about 5 weeks now. I think the seller just wanted a deal so did not sex them.
Here are 3 and the dark one is the only one dark like that.

 

[sourland]

In barred rocks, the lighter chicks are generally cockerels. In the picture, it looks like 2 cockerels, and probably a pullet.

 

[Bunnylady]

x2

In chickens, the gender-determining chromosomes are the opposite of the way they work in people - 2 alike makes a male, one of each makes a female. The barring gene occurs on the gender-determining chromosome, so a hen can only have one of them, a rooster may have 2. Two copies of the barring gene creates wider bands of white, which is why roosters can be lighter than the hens can.

If you only have one dark one, I have an uncomfortable feeling that you may have 4 cockerels and one pullet.

 

[hiltonii]

Wow, wish I had read this sooner, probably just sold a hen thinking it was a rooster. She needed a new home anyway
she wasn't fitting in to well with the rest of the flock.

 

[Bunnylady]

Wow, wish I had read this sooner, probably just sold a hen thinking it was a rooster. She needed a new home anyway
she wasn't fitting in to well with the rest of the flock.

Roo's can be dark if they only have one barring gene, and one non-barring gene (a Cochin, say, or some other breed that may or may not be barred.