What gender, please? :-) 6-week-old barnyard mixes

Jodi * Bend OR

In the Brooder
8 Years
May 17, 2011
17
1
26

These 2 are 6 weeks old here, both from the same Barred Rock daddy. Mama for the darker chick was clearly one of my friends' Black Copper Marans hens (that chick even hatched out with the leg feathering already started); lighter chick could be from either a Copper Marans mama or an Ameraucana mama (that one's a tough call: leg coloring is a standard yellow-pink, and no leg feathering at all, so your guess on which mama is probably better than mine).

Any guesses on gender yet on these 2? I know it's not the clearest photo. Both have pinkish combs and small red-pink wattles. I'm wondering, though, if the tail feathers (which look more pullet to me, but I'm no expert) are any indication. The roo was a hatchery "pullet" chick who turned out to be my "accidental rooster" and went to live on my friend's farm, then fathered these little ones, and his tail at the same age was very short.

Here's their daddy at the same, 6 weeks of age:

Notice the difference in his tail feathers when he was that same age? Am I off base here, just wistful thinking? What do the rest of you think regarding gender of the above 2 chicks... please and thank you!!
 
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Okay... again, both 6 weeks old.

Chick #1, Barred Rock over BCM:





And Chick #2, Barred Rock over either BCM or Ameraucana:





And a couple more of both, in case it helps:




Thanks again!

Edited to Add: Their Barred Rock daddy and chick #2 here looked very close to the same at this same age of 6 weeks, except, as you can see in my first post, daddy had much shorter tail feathers, and he was more red in his comb, wattles, and around his eyes.
 
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Are you sure the second bird cannot be a barred bird over a barred bird? It looks like HE has a double dose of the barring gene--so one gene from mother, one from father. Pullets cannot have two barring genes, only males.

ETA: Considering the comb development at 6-weeks, I would guess the darker bird is also a cockerel. If the darker one is BR x BCM, then all offspring would have a single barring gene which would lead to darker colored barred pullets and cockerels.
 
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This is a tricky one! It has a lot of whiter feathering, and kind of a reddish comb in the 1st BR pic. I'm guessing cock, but I may be wrong.
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I've never owned cuckoo marans so I don't think I can really help with that.
 
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:sigh: Thank you all, I was afraid they might be cockerels. I know it's a bit early to tell for sure, but....

The chick that looks more Barred Rock definitely has either a Black Copper Marans or Ameraucana mother; those are the only kinds of hens my friend has. I know the darker chick is more obvious in terms of mama, since he/she has more traits of the Copper Marans. My friend has the rest of the chicks, from I think 3 different hatches (all from the same BR roo and same hens of those 2 breeds), and most of them look far more Barred Rock than they do the breeds of their respective mamas. Seems my accidental rooster (the daddy) had strong genes. ;-)

If any of you or anyone else care to chime in with more info., I'm always open to learning. Thank you again, very much!!!
 
Well, you can probably assume that the Ameraucana is not the mother--the chick would not have such a nice single comb and would probably have something of a beard, since muffs and peacombs are fairly dominant traits.
 

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