Help to Determine pure Barred Rocks from Black Australorp/Barred Rock Crosses

[deshet]

This is my first hatch. My eggs are Hatching now. I have been a lurker for about 3 years.
My Question…….
The rooster is a Barred Rock and most of the hens are Barred Rock
Some of the Hens are Black Australorp
The farmer that I get these from just sells brown eggs. He doesn’t know who lays what. He has 2 of the Black Austrlorp, 6 Barred Rock hens and the 1 Barred Rock Rooster. I have had 3 chicks hatch. They all look to be Barred Rock Roosters. Should identifying the Pure Barred Rocks from the Barred Rock/Australorp crosses be easy to determine.
I only plan to keep 4 hens I think the Pure Barred Rocks will be better layers then the crosses let me know what you think.
Thanks

 

[FarmerMac]

I am no expert but this is what I have noticed in my flock;
I had a Barred Rock rooster last year that crossed with my Australorps, EE, and a Brahma. The off springs have Barred Rock markings but the difference I noticed was that some have dark legs instead of yellow legs. The BR and EE some have yellow legs and some have puffy chicks, maybe those are form the Araucanas, the Australorps and BR have dark legs. The Brahma looks BR but with feathered legs.
Maybe somebody with more breeding experience can explain it.

Here are a couple of the BR mixed

 

[donrae]

Short story is, you won't be able to tell until they're older.

Long story is....the male barred Rock gave a barring gene to each and every one of his offspring, regardless of gender. Since the non barred hens are also black, those offspring are going to look just like a barred Rock.

As they mature, you should be able to tell your pure Rock roosters, they'll have two copies of the barring gene (one from the sire, one from the Rock dam) and have the classic lighter barring and yellow legs with no dark color.

The cockerels from the Aussie hens will have the darker color of a pure barred Rock pullet, cause they're only getting one copy of the barring gene (from the sire. None from the dam as she has no barring). Being as the non-barred parent is black, you may or may not get leakage of another color in the hackle and saddle feathers as the bird ages. You'll just have to tell these from the pullets by the other indicators such as comb size.

All your pullets will basically look the same, one copy of the barring gene. Again, since the non-barred parent is black, the Aussie's pullet offspring will probably be colored just like a pure barred Rock pullet, with no leakage of color at the throat. I'm not sure you'll be able to tell who is who, honestly.

 

[deshet]

Should it be easy to tell a pullet from a cockerel? Should I be able to wing sex them? I want to find homes for the cockerels ASAP.

I read that barred rock and the Australorp are both good layers should I try and keep the crosses or the mixes or does it matter?

I thought the barred rock hens would be better if I wanted to hatch sex-linked chicks in the future.

Thanks

 

[donrae]

No wing sexing. You'll have to wait for red combs around 5-6 weeks.

The mixes should be great layers. And you can indeed keep the barred hens to use as sex link breeding stock in the future.

 

[drumstick diva]

Donrae gave you good advice, I agree with her reply