color difference, does it mean anything? *pics*

[Rookie Raiser]

i have 3 barred rock chicks that are a little over 4 weeks old. i got them from a feed store and two of them i got from a pullet tub and the other i got from a "rainbow" tub along with i think a black australorp where they did not check gender, they just knew they layed eggs. today when going to check on them i noticed that the two i got from the pullet tub where a lot lighter than the rainbow tubbed.

here are pics of them:

this is Liberty (one of the pullet tub chicks)



this is Justice (the other pullet tub chick)



and this is Alli (pronounced Olli) from the "rainbow" tub





does the darkness mean anything? (if you want more pics of any of them, let me know) thank you!

 

[mtnviewfarms]

as BR chicks grow older the darker are pullets and the lighter are cockerels. you can also ck the feet - a female will have dark 'wash' down her leg and about half way down into her feet and stop.

the cockerels have lighter wash on their legs if any and it goes all the way to the end of the toes.

usually females have a smaller more defined white headspot than the more diffuse one on the males.

 

[stefan333]

If the chicks came from the same hatchery (and are brothers and sisters) then the lighter ones are males and the darker one is female. The reason I say "same hatchery" is because different breeders/hatcheries have variations in their BRs. I've found that telling gender by using the light/dark method only works if you're comparing siblings. For instance: I've had female BRs from Hatchery A that were just as light as the male BRs from Hatchery B. Chances are your BRs came from the same source, so I would say that the first two are actually males and the last one is the female. Feed stores are notorious for messing things up. I've got Welsummers that were labeled as Speckled Sussex, and many many roos mixed in with the pullet bin. I couldn't tell until they got older. At least I never bought the Rhode Island Reds that were labeled as White Leghorns.

If you wait a few more weeks it will be very obvious when the males combs will be noticably bigger. The females don't really get much of a comb until they get close to laying eggs.


Edit: I just noticed something when I made the last pic bigger. What kind of comb does the last chicken have? It might be the pic, but it doesn't look like a single comb.

 

[Rookie Raiser]

here is another pic of the last one

 

[stefan333]

Ya, that looks like a single comb in the new pic. She looks like a she BR, and the first two look like he BRs if you go strictly based on comparing color, but I have found that's not always accurate. If you look at my icon pic I hatched him, two other boys and one girl from efowl.com. I wish I would have kept the other pics, so I could show you the difference. They were absolutely beautiful BRs, and it was so easy to tell the difference with them even at an early age. I haven't had that easy of a time with BRs from other sources until they got their combs. I think he was about 8 weeks in the pic, but if you look at his comb you can obviously tell he's a roo. There's still a lot of hope that your first two are girls, but just wait a few more weeks. By that time if they are roos, they should have combs that look similar to my icon pic.