My B-Rocks have Dark Legs,Beaks

[MeerKat]

All 10 of them have dark grey or black mixed in with their yellow legs and beak.

Anyone else have this in their barred rock hens?What other chicken has dark leg?

I would like to start knowing about raising chickens instead of learning everything the hard way.

We wanted dual purpose bird,but not sure these will be good meat birds.Any help would be appreciated.

 

[miss_thenorth]

Barred rock hens wil havea grey wash on the fronts of their legs. this is one way of sexing them, as is the size of the spot on their heads. And whern they feather, males are lighter thatn the females. Barred rocks are considered a dual purpose bird as the get to a nice size in a relatively short period of time (4-6 months for a fryer size). I rasie BRs for DP, and being able to sex them is helpful to me, so I know how many egg layers I am going to get, and how many dinners I will get, so I will know how many to hatch out for the year. But don't thik that b/c they are DP, that you will get a bird with a comparable breast size as the birds you buy in the gorcery store. If that is what you want, you will need to raise cornish X.

 

[MeerKat]

Thanks, for the reply Miss.

I don't expect a store bird,but hope they make good meat birds and egg layers.

Are the beaks suppose to have dark spots in the middle too?All have one dark spot in the middle?

 

[KatyTheChickenLady]

My BR have a grey flush on the fronts of their legs . . . not sure why this is bothering you??? It certainly won't effect egg laying or meat quality. That said, where you got them from well!

 

[MeerKat]

Quote:
I'm still not informed that much about chickens.I've had them off and on trying to get set up to raise a few for our personal use.

We had 10 of the most beautiful BR roos from the same hatchery.One was so nice we kept him for about a year.So i guess I was expecting the hens to be as perfect in color and form as he was.He had yellow legs and beak.

I'd rather not say which hatchery.

Thanks for your info.

 

[Fred's Hens]

Barred Rocks are the favorite breed of many, many folks here on BYC, mainly for their personality. Most modern, hatchery strains have been selectively bred to be good layers. Not top layers like a production red hybrid bird, but decent enough.

As for meat birds, the designation dual purpose may lead some folks to be disappointed when butchering. Almost everyone these days is so used to the chicken breast they see under plastic at a grocery store. Those are virtually 100% hybrid CornishX type fowl. Your BR dual purpose carcass won't bear a lot of similarity. You'll have accept that no well laying bird is going to also have a carcass to which most folks have become accustomed.

We love our Barred Rocks.

 

[MeerKat]

Fred's Hens :

Barred Rocks are the favorite breed of many, many folks here on BYC, mainly for their personality. Most modern, hatchery strains have been selectively bred to be good layers. Not top layers like a production red hybrid bird, but decent enough.

As for meat birds, the designation dual purpose may lead some folks to be disappointed when butchering. Almost everyone these days is so used to the chicken breast they see under plastic at a grocery store. Those are virtually 100% hybrid CornishX type fowl. Your BR dual purpose carcass won't bear a lot of similarity. You'll have accept that no well laying bird is going to also have a carcass to which most folks have become accustomed.

We love our Barred Rocks.

I'm still learning and I was comparing the hens with the roos we got for packing with our leggerns.The roos were really pretty.Now I know the hens can have smokey legs and dark spot in middle of beak.
I don't expect them to look like store birds.We have 10 born last day of march.They are friendly.

Thanks for info and yall sure are helpful.​