anyone want to give this one a shot?

[karmical]

Hi there!

I'm new to raising chickens and am LOVING every minute of it so far! I ordered 7 chicks from "My Pet Chicken" about 6 weeks ago, and am wondering if the one barred rock I got is going to be a roo or a hen....this one has stumpy tail feathers while the others are much longer and I heard that might be a sign of being male....also, there was a suspicious, large white dot atop this little one's head upon arrival....

 

[Rooster01]

If there was a white dot on its head then its a rooster. Barred Rock hens have back heads as chicks.

ETA:
Pullets do sometimes have spot on their heads, just not big ones. Most of my BR chicks that turn out to roosters had big white spots on their head.

 

[MissPrissy]

6 weeks is too early for me to tell. At 8 weeks mine are much larger and I still can't tell for sure yet. Every single BR I have had from McMurray has a white spot on the back of its head - pullet and cockeral.

 

[2mnypets]

I know that the Black Sex Link cockrels have the white spot on the head where the pullets have a complete black head. I'm not sure though on the BR. It's hard to tell in your pic though....do you see any wattles coming in at all? Since both sexes get combs, it's hard to really determine unless it is growing considerably fast.

 

[karmical]

Well, Miss Prissy has givien me hope that MAYBE I've got a pullet...I guess time will tell.

Thanks All !!!

 

[Motherhenandflock]

Of my 5 barred rocks pullets, one became much lighter, more black on white, and the legs were yellow, not as much shadowing. Roo!
I'd say yours is a pullet.

 

[schmoo]

This is my BR Roo at 10 weeks his comb was there at even 8 weeks. I'm guessing your is a pullet. My Roo DID have the white dot on his head, but I also had a few black sex link pullets who had a dot.........

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=12589

 

[silkiechicken]

Kind of young to definitively say, but I say girl. She doesn't have any pinkness to her comb or wattle so it's a positive sign. You'll know in the next month or so.

 

[Mulemom]

Schmoo, Do you know if that much comb and red and all is normal for a roo at 10 weeks? My BR's are 10 weeks tomorrow and there were three with the short tail feathers, and a couple are a little more redish in the comes then the the others, but they are still much smaller combs then in the picture of your beautiful boy. I am hoping for no roos out of the rest of my 10 week olds. I have one crowing silver spangled hamburg at this point. He's been crowing for about 3 weeks now, and so far no one else in the group of 26 is. 1 to 25 would be my prefered ratio even though I would have rather it be one of the breeds that I wanted to raise...BR, RIR and Black Australorp.

Oh yeah.....all 10 of my BR's had white dots.

 

[speckledhen]

Ok, this is not always 100% accurate, since I did have a light colored pullet with a large headspot as a chick. She's definitely a hen, the now famous Lexie, however, usually that indicates a cockerel. Usually the Barred Rocks get tails in both sexes, but sometimes the cockerels' tails are shorter. I would not go by that with Barred Rocks however.
Black sexlink pullets have black heads with no spot, but in Barred Rocks, both have headspots-usually the males have large splotchy headspots and the girls have smaller ones with more defined edges. USUALLY, maybe 95% of the time.
Both may have a slight black wash down the front of the legs, but the males have less of it and more yellow.
I've raised them for a couple of years, bought them from a hatchery, hatched my own eggs from a friend's flock and my own flock.
It's hard sometimes to tell in a picture because of the light-usually it helps if the pic is taken out in the sunlight rather than inside the house. Yours appears to be a pullet from your pics. By six weeks, all my cockerels have distinct combs and some are crowing.
Here is one of my Barred Rock cockerels at FIVE weeks old: