Receiving roosters with a "Pullet Only" order.

[Pixie]

I emailed Estes last week and they said it was too early to tell. They said they guarantee a 90% success rate, so if I get 6 roosters it is still within their policy (which I did not read anywhere).

However 16 is way more than 6. I emailed them the same photo as above, today and will see what they say.

 

[lazy gardener]

How many did you order? How many birds did you receive? Barred patterned birds should be very easy to sex, based on feather pattern/color, as well as leg color. Of course this varies from one strain to an other. But, it appears to me that you have straight run birds. The light colored ones, being males. If you read the fine print, most hatcheries say they will refund the difference in the price of male and female chicks only for the number of males that exceed the 10% guarantee. IMO, this is hardly worth the paper it's written on, and not fair to the customer. One year, I ordered Dominiques. The minute I laid eyes on them, I knew they all were roos. Company said that couldn't be possible. Thankfully, they did stand behind their policy, and issued me a credit for replacement of those birds the following spring.

 

[Free Spirit]

If they turn out to be roosters I hope you can get a refund on the difference in price and have a plan on how to deal with the roosters.

I got 6 marans sexed pullets and 6 cochin bantams straight run this year. I was very surprised to have 3 maran hens and 3 maran roosters, a 50/50 which should have been all females. It doubly surprised me that all my bantams were all hens (count my lucky stars). I picked mine up from TSC so they either labeled them wrong or got an incorrect shipment themselves.

Instead of making the effort for a refund I just waited until the roosters were older and butchered them. Figuring that the price difference was miniscule as the price of chicken at the market has gone so high. I feel that even though a mistake was made that in the end I still got my moneys worth and then some.

I would still contact the place you ordered them from and let them know.

 

[Hholly]

Sorry you have that situation. Not only did you pay extra for pullets and you will have fewer eggs; now you have to cull a bunch of roosters somehow. Which isn't very nice to do. My sympathies.

 

[Pixie]

Here is the reply I got from Estes. I sent the photo shown above too.

"I don’t see any recognizable roosters for sure here with this picture. As I said before Barred Rocks have a lot larger comb than the other breeds and they develop at different rates. So, be patient a little while longer. I think your fine. However, keep in touch and don’t get rid of the suspect roosters yet I think you will be surprised how it turns out."

 

[donrae]

Here is the reply I got from Estes. I sent the photo shown above too.

"I don’t see any recognizable roosters for sure here with this picture. As I said before Barred Rocks have a lot larger comb than the other breeds and they develop at different rates. So, be patient a little while longer. I think your fine. However, keep in touch and don’t get rid of the suspect roosters yet I think you will be surprised how it turns out."

I'm sorry you're having to deal with this. Makes you wonder if they know anything about the birds they sell.....

 

[song of joy]

Here is the reply I got from Estes. I sent the photo shown above too.

"I don’t see any recognizable roosters for sure here with this picture. As I said before Barred Rocks have a lot larger comb than the other breeds and they develop at different rates. So, be patient a little while longer. I think your fine. However, keep in touch and don’t get rid of the suspect roosters yet I think you will be surprised how it turns out."

Unbelievable! I'd ask them exactly how long you have to hold onto the birds before they'll be satisfied about gender. The longer you have to keep cockerels, the more expensive it is in feed, and the more they'll harass the pullets. It also becomes more difficult to re-home them as they get older. I'm so sorry you're having to deal with this.

 

[Kev]

Yeah I agree with the other responses... those are cockerels, aside from the combs the barring has a dosage effect due to it being a sex linked gene. Pullets are normally darker than the pure barred cockerels. The difference can be seen in their legs also also due to the barring effect is more color on the legs on pullets than cockerels. As you can see all the lighter colored ones also have bigger combs....

Yeah they're either ignorant or trying to put off dealing with their mistake with your order.

Take a clear closer up picture of a pullet and a cockerel showing the lighter vs darker and explain it is due to the sex linked barring dosage.

 

[Folly's place]

I'd be reluctant to order from them again; it's obvious that you have straight run birds. The first year that we ordered from MMcM, they sent some bantam rather than standard Brahmas. When we figured it out, they made good on the mistake, and sent the standard birds. We had a lot of chickens that year! We also decided that the bantam Brahmas are way nicer than the standards, but that's another story! There's never been a problem dealing with the hatcheries I've used. Mary

 

[lazy gardener]

MMc made it right with me when they sent 3 Dom roos instead of pullets.