Day old Barred birds-update-gender?

Happy · Post by **Happy** » Mon Apr 10, 2017 3:28 pm

I've always heard you can sex barred rock chicks from the shape of the spot on their head. TBH even with examples they all look the same to me.
These guys just hatched yesterday...Mom's are my barred rocks and dad is Harley the barred Cochin. They sure got Cochin genes...Have more feathers on their legs than a lot of pure chicks I've seen! Can anyone tell from these head spots?

Skinny rooster · Post by **Skinny rooster** » Mon Apr 10, 2017 4:03 pm

I'm interested to see if anyone answers this, I never heard that before and I used to have barred rocks and barred Cochins, is it possible you are thinking about when they use barred rocks to make sex-link chicks? Just be careful, there are a lot of stories out there about how to sex chicks, I have tried them all and none ever worked for me. The only ones that worked are sex-link chicks and a guy I met who could actually sex chicks. He did it for me and was %100 with my RIR chicks. I since have tried myself but am USELESS at it lol.

Happy · Post by **Happy** » Mon Apr 10, 2017 4:18 pm

No I know you can use them for sex linking but that's not what I meant. Here's an example:

I have no clue if it holds true!

Post by **Killerbunny** » Mon Apr 10, 2017 4:42 pm

They have the cutest little feathered legs! I love that.

Microraptor · Post by **Microraptor** » Mon Apr 10, 2017 4:47 pm

i also heard that they can be sexed by leg colour?

supposedly dark foot = pullet

tcamp · Post by **tcamp** » Mon Apr 10, 2017 5:20 pm

If those were pure barred rocks they would be pullets judging by their head spot...not sure how mixing with barred cochin affects it though

Happy · Post by **Happy** » Mon Apr 10, 2017 5:24 pm

Microraptor wrote:QR_BBPOST i also heard that they can be sexed by leg colour?

supposedly dark foot = pullet

If this is true I'm in trouble. They have the cleanest, hairy carrot sticks toes I've ever seen!

Happy · Post by **Happy** » Mon Apr 10, 2017 5:36 pm

tcamp wrote:QR_BBPOST If those were pure barred rocks they would be pullets judging by their head spot...not sure how mixing with barred cochin affects it though

I can hope for that but one is already shooting me the stink eye lol. Tcamp have you tested this type of sexing before? Just curious how accurate it is?
And fyi my spell correct keeps changing your name to "tramp" so in case I ever hit send before noticing please know that's what happened!

The one with the whiter foot feathers is off-spring of one of my old original girls. She took a little longer break this fall/winter and was a bit slow gearing up but for the past 3 weeks she has laid 6 out of 7 days and she is 5 years old! She's never been sick and is my least "drama" chicken so I thought I'd try to keep her genes around while I still could.

tcamp · Post by **tcamp** » Mon Apr 10, 2017 6:07 pm

LOL, call me what you want but know that I am never late for dinner :P

Yes i have had barred rocks for years and have always sexed them that way, so does everyone I know around here...the feet ARE also darker in a female...yours don't have the darker feet...but like I said, they are barred rock sexing indications...no idea how it works if you bred with another barred bird though

Country Bumkin · Post by **Country Bumkin** » Mon Apr 10, 2017 7:12 pm

hhmm, when we ordered our barred chicks from the hatchery, one of them turned out to be a male. We ordered females. So if the peeps at the hatchery couldn't differentiate a male barred from a female barred, I'm inclined to believe that it's a mighty difficult thing to do.