Need a bit of help on br gender and a few others on their breed.

[HeatherLynn]

Mine had almost nothing at 8 weeks. Yellow tiny combs. They seemed to get a little bigger and a bit pinker in the next 2 weeks and now.... well you can see where we are at.

 

[Young MacDonald]

Then I'm in really bad trouble!!

Four of the 6 I have have combs like that. The other 2 have almost no comb (yellow), but I think those two are younger.

What SpeckledHen said about the vendor's knowledge really sours it. I'm just getting started with my flock and this purchase may end up being a bad experience - have to make lemonade. I still haven't heard any crowing yet. Have you?

 

[speckledhen]

I "make" my own Easter Egger by breeding my BR rooster with my Ameraucana and Easter Egger hens. They come out blue barred or black barred and lay green eggs.

 

[ArizonaDesertChicks]

Quote:
These are my barred rock pullets at 7-8 weeks. The females are darker, usually have a dark wash down the front fo their legs (versus all yellow), and obviously have smaller combs & wattles.

 

[HeatherLynn]

See thats the confusing part. My br's with two of the largest combs have the darkest wash down their legs. They are also the largest of all of them. One of these crowed also so I know for sure that one is a male also. I think they may have an overeating issue. The smallest which has this tiny neat little comb ( which is the darkest red) has almost no dark wash at all. He crowed too so I know he is a roo but he has darker coloring than the others.

 

[Young MacDonald]

Thanks Arizona Desert & Heather.

I haven't heard any crowing yet, but I'm in the same boat with Heather on the leg issue. I've been looking at the leg coloring too (and examining for spurs). The two that I'm convinced are pullets have a very dark wash down the leg that pretty much covers it, but their combs are much smaller than those pictures you have (they are almost not there at all), and they are smaller birds, which makes me think they might just be younger. The woman who sold them to me did have various hatches - I'm sure of this because she advertised over a few weeks ("I have 6 week old BR pullets" but she placed those ads on April 5 & later April 25 so you know that if they were the same birds they weren't 6 weeks on both dates). Of course, she also advertised "pullets" and that apparently isn't entirely true.

But I read somewhere that the wash becomes lighter as they age, so I'm wondering about that. The other ones have varying degrees of wash, some which look like your pullet on the left. The coloring on the feathers of two is lighter so I'm pretty sure those are cockerels. But then there are a couple where the combs are larger, but lighter pink than the others and the legs look like yours on the left. Argh! It would be easier if I knew the age because yours look smaller than mine, which could be the photo or it could be mine are older. I feel so lost...

Maybe I should just resign myself to the fact that I paid too much for my chicken soup!

 

[speckledhen]

The dark on the legs, by itself, is not a perfect indicator of sex. Some males have a bit, some females have almost none. Mainly, the hatchery stock is what has the really dark leg fronts on the females. You must take all three traits together to try to determine sex-leg color, headspot and down color on chicks, then plumage color on feathered out birds.
One of my hens produced a VERY dark cockerel, darkest I've ever seen. Wasn't until he got saddle feathers later on that we realized we had an oddball. He's owned by lockedhearts.

 

[Young MacDonald]

Thank you, Cynthia. I also took a look at the pictures of the 6 week olds that you posted on another thread. None of mine are as light as the cockerel in your picture, but the legs and combs make me wonder. I'll just have to keep watching them grow. And learn from the experience.

 

[speckledhen]

That is the very best sexing method, the "Wait and See Method", LOL.