Is this a male or female?

[Galitaya]

I don't know if this will help. But it seems that Roos have thicker legs then hens before you can tell what they are. That's how I tell and MOST of the time it seems to work. Good luck.

His legge are ticker than the pullets...
So I’m thinking roo now..

 

[EmmaRainboe]

Boy.

 

[Northwest_Wannabe]

Yeah I'm gonna for sure say cockerel now, sorry :'(

 

[Rhodebar Lover]

Cockerel. Double copy of barring gene is often a cockerel trait leading to the lighter color

 

[Medodge]

Rhodebar can you explain double barring for me

 

[Rhodebar Lover]

Rhodebar can you explain double barring for me

I'm no expert in genetics, but I believe in most barred lines the father of a chick passes one copy of the barred gene to sons and daughters, while the mother only passes one copy to sons. So the males have two copies and females have one. The double copies lead to wider bars and hence a lighter appearance when compared to females! Here's an article on it and here's pictures of a pair of Barred Rock Bantams I had that shows the difference between sexes! https://www.hobbypoultry.com/the-barred-gene-use-in-chickens/

 

[Medodge]

Rhodebar. Those are amazing birds. Thank you for the link.

 

[EmmaRainboe]

Rhodebar can you explain double barring for me

Barring is connect to the Z sex chromosome. In chickens males have two Z chromosomes (ZZ) and females have one Z and one W (ZW). This means that males can carry 0, 1, or 2 barring genes while females can carry 0 or 1. That means a bird with double barring (two barring genes) has to be male.

Here's a video about pattern. The barring section starts at about 5:37 but I do recommend watching the whole video, it may help make the barring segment make more sense.

 

[Medodge]

Thanks!