Sexing Help - Barred Plymouth Rocks

[mikep818]

I have 6 Barred Plymouth Rocks chicks that are 3 weeks old. I am concerned that all of them are going to be crowing. They all look the same to me - large white stripes with more grey than black, smudged head spots and yellow feet. I've done some research and these seem to be traits of a cockerel. Can someone look at these pictures and tell me i'm wrong????

 

[Lady of McCamley]

First,

Now as to your question, if you got them from a feed store, that meant they are from a hatchery. Hatchery stock don't follow the neat and tidy little rules for Barred Rocks like breeder quality lines do.

More importantly, the rules are more like guidelines, Barred Rocks are NOT auto sexing. Birds with tight head spots and black wash down the front of yellow legs tend to be girls. Boys tend to have the more diffuse head spot and all yellow legs.

As to whether they are lighter barred vs. darker depends on whether the boys got the double barring, which most do, vs. the single barring of the girls. But for me, and my poor bespeckled eyes, it does become a matter of trying to determine if the zebra is white with black stripes or black with white stripes. Until they grow a bit and you can really begin to notice a difference, it can be a bit maddening....and often still maddening even when they are older until the secondary sex feathers come in...saddle and hackles.

The best indicator will be the comb color and size. The boys will get large, red combs much earlier than the girls whose combs will stay fairly small and yellow until just before they start to lay when they will get larger and red...but not anywhere as large and red as the boys.

Three weeks is way too early to say for certain for sexing such that you want to cull or re-home. Wait it out. Barreds can be very frustrating to sex. Usually by 6 weeks you've got a good suspicion by comb sizes, by 8 weeks fairly certain, and mine are usually crowing by 10 to 12 so there is no doubt. But some of them...you just have to wait until they crow or lay an egg.

As to your group, no one is screaming roo right now. All seem to have nice, small yellow combs. If we look at the guidelines, they seem to have fairly tight head dots, a couple do have a bit more white barring on the wings, several clearly have black leg wash...if you bought sexed chicks, you have a 90% chance of getting females...and I run that percentage with feed store chicks...for every 10 chicks, I get a roo.

Lady of McCamley

 

[mikep818]

Thank you for the advice! I will wait and see