My barred rock hen is biting the neck of my Baby bantam? Barred is more than double her size and it

[chem]

hello everyone

this morning while doing my normal chicken rounds i watched my barred rock bite the back of my silver duckwing OEGs neck! this made my Baby scream and jump. usually she only screams like that when she is being stepped on by the other chickens. they are all the same age but they (aside from JJ my sebright) are more than double the size of my little OEG. now i was told and i watched them pull my barred from the pullet pen when i purchased her as a chick. i am confused as to why a hen would do this to another hen? unless ofcourse my barred is really not a hen. i have had some people tell me on here that my barred is a male but i am trying not to believe them

my barred barely makes any sounds and she pretty much just hangs out with JJ my sebright. some people on here have also told me that JJ my sebright is also a male. i choose not to accept that yet either lol
now JJ is a screamer. she is VERY talkative and very demanding especially when she wants to get my attention. very relentless. so here i am again stuck with the question.... are my barred and sebright really males or are they females? i have seen pictures of both barreds and sebrights at 7 weeks old and some of the pics i have come across are hens that look like my 2. so what do i really believe? JJ and barred are VERY close, very tight friendship. here is a picture of my barred:



and now here is a pic of my sebright:





if they are really males than why no spur development? why is barred acting like a hen except for the neck biting incident.
what can i do to correct this problem? i cannot have barred beating up on my little baby. it makes her nervous and she runs to me when she gets scared!

any ideas or suggestions please feel free to chime in! i know i am stubborn but i really will keep telling myself they are girls until i have hard proof! lol

and finally.... a picture of my other chicken staring at the wall as it often does lol
this chick is perfectly fine. she just likes the wall lol

 

[Pele]

This is a quite a series of questions, actually. The barred rock is absolutely a male. It is not crowing or showing spurs yet because it is not fully mature. Just as human boys don't show all their male characteristics at birth, so too with roosters, puberty awaits.

As to why it is biting the other bird, that is probably more related to size differences and establishing the pecking order than gender issues. It could be that he's trying to figure out how to mount, but it is more likely that it's a dominance move. And yes, hens will do this to one another for the same reason. Some standard sized birds can never be trusted with bantams (mine cant, they do their best to kill them, even after weeks of trying to integrate them).

 

[speckledhen]

Cockerels don't have spurs until they are over six to eight months of age and they aren't really noticeable until closer to a year.

The Barred Rock is a male, no doubt. Trust me on that one.

 

[chem]

hello pele
this is very sad news to me but it does make sense. i was really hoping my barred was a female. all i can do now is wait and see if he will be loud or not. on the down side, i cannot have a roo if it is a loud one. i live in an area that would make it rude and inconsiderate of me to have a roo. my neighbors are great people and i do not want to upset them. now all i can do is cross my fingers he will be a considerate little fella lol otherwise he will have to go live with my friend who has TONS of land and no neighbors. it just breaks my heart a little since i hand raised him and he loves me
i would of course go visit him all the time though
do you think my sebright is a male as well from the picture i posted?
i thought it very odd that barred bit babys neck earlier today. i bought them all at the same time and they were all raised together in the brooder. he was always fine with her and the other bantam. in fact he kinda took them on, even though he was a baby himself. he always protected them and they were always with him. very close! over time the sebright and barred formed a REALLY tight friendship. those 2 are always together. if barred has to go live with my friend im sure my sebright will not take that very well. my other bantam just became more attached to me as time went on. i am still debating on keeping her in the house part time with me since she loves to just be near me.
i suppose i will just have to keep an eye on barred to make sure he doesnt hurt the baby too much. if something were to happen to her i would just die, she is my love-bug

thank you for your help, sometimes its just hard for me to handle the truth lol
have a great night!

 

[chem]

Cockerels don't have spurs until they are over six to eight months of age and they aren't really noticeable until closer to a year.

The Barred Rock is a male, no doubt. Trust me on that one.

hi speckledhen

is this true for bantams as well? im wondering about my sebright in the second picture. thank you input, i really appreciate it!

 

[speckledhen]

It's pretty much true for most male chickens, as far as I know. I have Belgian D'Anver bantam roosters who have just turned a year old. They have spurs smaller than the size of a pencil eraser still.

 

[sourland]

I believe that both the barred rock and sebright are cockerels. Sorry.

 

[Cindy in PA]

Both are roosters. I had a Sebright female that showed no comb development for months and never had comb like that. It appears your sebright has a straight comb, which is not the norm, but very easy to tell roosters when it is that big at 7 weeks.

 

[chem]

alright, so my hopes have been shattered lol j/k
i love my chickens regardless
i just hope they are considerate chickens when it comes to all those lovely noises roos make, just for my neighbors sake lol

cindy.... do you think JJ isnt a sebright at all given that he has one single comb as apposed to the double found on all males?

 

[chem]

also, for the past week JJ has been trilling in the morning. well at least thats what i thought it was until just a few mins ago when i watched him. at the end of the trill it looked like he wanted to keep going. his neck was stretched and his mouth wide open. since JJ is a bantam and i thought it was his sebright attitude i chalked his noisy behavior up to his breed. but he is LOUD! barred is barely talkative. do you think my little bantam has already established dominance over the large one and that is why barred doesnt make noises and JJ does?

***EDIT***
i had a brain fart