sexing bantam rocks?

[amazondoc]

Hey guys --

I "accidentally" bought 4 young bantam barred rocks yesterday. I was at this guy's place to buy 3 bantam Columbian rocks, and he said if I bought all the barred rocks in addition he'd throw em in for $5. So I did.

Now, these barred rocks are supposed to be pullets. But I wouldn't be surprised if they're all cockerels. Unfortunately, I have NO experience with sexing barred or cuckoo birds. I know the theory -- two copies of the barring gene for males, one for females -- but I don't know how that translates into visually distinguishing between them as youngsters (around 4-6 weeks).

Can anybody give me handy pointers? I'll try to get pics in the next few days, but I'm way too tired right now!

 

[speckledhen]

The really light ones, the ones with wider white bars are the males most of the time. By that age, the males normally have pinky combs.

 

[amazondoc]

I think I'm gonna have to post pics. Right now their combs look awfully androgenous to me -- like the character of undetermined sex called "Pat" that used to appear on Saturday Night Live.

I'll get pics. Stay Tuned. Thanks!

 

[speckledhen]

I have only had the standard BRs, but the sexing should be the same. Anyway, I'd love to see pics of the little whippersnappers.

 

[embkm]

I got one banty barred rock at TSC as a day old. As if got bigger, it is much lighter colored than my standard pullets, more like the cockerals. I was convinced it was a male, but at last week I checked all the chicks closely and noticed that it doesn't have the pointy feathers that the other males have. Now I am not so sure and am thinking it's a female, I figured I'd just keep it for a bit longer to see if it lays or crows.

 

[walkswithdog]

Quote:
Glad I'm not the only one with accidental chickenage...

 

[DawnSuiter]

From their faces... it looked to me like you had one or two boys in there and the rest girls, but what the heck do I know!

I'm glad you decided NOT to blame me for your new chickens

thanks for the help with the transport!

 

[amazondoc]

That's right, I forgot -- it's all Dawn's fault!

 

[amazondoc]

Okay, I put pics here:

http://eggheadhill.smugmug.com/gallery/8609375_as9qc

 

[walkswithdog]

Darlin, those rocks have NO tails...and fairly large COMBS... I've got three week olds with much bigger tails and they are...wait for it... girls.

That's very very showy boy barring if I were to make a guess. And they stand really upright. I'd expect a much wider darker bar on a girl.

I'm sure they were pullets until DAWN BREATHED on them.... Chuckle...