To whom it may concern, Can you tell me how I can sex day old chicks? Are do you have a photo of sexing chick's,showing what's a rooster, and what's a pullet? Thank you Beverly Vinson.

-- Beverly Vinson (bingoqueen@sowingseeds.org), March 17, 2002

Answers

Go to Japan, and study at the chick sexing school. It takes a couple of years of sexing thousands of chicks a day to become merely compentent at it. There are books out there that purport to show how, but other than purchasing sex=linked or autosexing breeds, it is beyond the capability of the normal poultry breeder. Some breeds can be sexed at a few weeks by feather growth or comb development, but some breeds, such as silkies, and ameraucanas, frequently cannot be sexed with certaintly until crow or lay. I recently had a silkie cockerel, or so I thought, til he started laying. OOOps.

-- Deidre Edder (edderland@yahoo.com), March 17, 2002.

Look at previous asked questions ( archives at bottom of main page), seems that this same question has come up numerous times recently and been thoroughly answered.

-- BC (desertdweller44@yahoo.com), March 18, 2002.

Well, to answer you question, and maybe give you some insight, I will give you my experience. If you are going to raise them for eggs or food, it won't matter until they are old enough to have the cone or hen house ways. I found out that when they are small, it is our human nature to see how many are cocks and how many are pullets, when it really didn't matter till they were old enough to be eaten or to keep as layers. By that time, you will know anyway, but as God placed in us the curiosity to want to know, you could try what is called 'Venting'.If I am hatching them, I wait and see. If I am buyng them and can pick what I want I vent them. To put this as simple and non-vulgar as I know how, here goes. Turn the chick upside down. Brush back the little fuzzy feathers near his pooper. Gently blow on the pooper. It will scrunch up like he/she/ or it is going to poop. As it is scrunching, if it scrunches round, it is a him. If it scrunches oval, it is a her. (I try to remember- oval/egg). Sometimes it is hard to tell round poopers from oval poopers. BUT.... a sure fire way to tell... and my father-in-law taught me this..... Sprinkle a little feed on the ground, if He starts to eat it..... it's a HIM. If she starts to eat it.... it's a HER. Hope this helps!

-- Bear (Barelyknow@aol.com), March 18, 2002.

Outside of the hybrid sex links that make it easy to tell male from female by color or wingfeather length the only half-way reliable method to determine gender is by vent sexing. Unfortunately, vent sexing takes real skill to produce results much more useful than random chance and that skill takes a lot of time and practice to develop from everything I've read.

In practical terms this means that until the birds are about four to six weeks old it's going to be difficult to distinguish male from female. At somewhere between a month to a month and a half old you can start looking at the feathers on the back of the neck to about where the middle of the shoulder blades would be on a person. A cockerel will have feathers that are longer and more pointed whereas a hen's feathers will be shorter and more rounded. Even that method takes a bit of practice. I'm still sort of hit or miss about it.

.......Alan.

-- Alan (athagan@atlantic.net), March 18, 2002.

Folks who tell you that they can reliably sex chicks are either pros or they are deluding themselves. There are some things you can do, however.

First, there are crosses that produce males and females of different colors. Look up "sex links" on the net. Sex links are crosses that do not reproduce true; they have to be made fresh each generation.

Second, there are some crosses that produce different colored males and females that do breed true. Look up "legbar" and you will see a discussion of these. I do not understand why these crosses are not used more--excess cockerels are a pain and research seems to indicate that pullets outperform cockerels even as broilers.

Finally, the Salmon Faverolle male and female are naturally different colors. I had no experience with these and learned this only recently. There may be others.

If you cannot use one of these color-sexed breeds you may as well pay the hatchery to sex your chicks when you buy them.

Mac

-- Jimmy S (Macrocarpus@gbronline.com), March 18, 2002.

Place 2 small dishes in the pen, one containing a highly hopped microbrew, the other Budweiser. The roosters will gravitate to the microbrew. The ladies (and queer roosters) will like the Bud!

-- Brad (homefixer@SacoRiver.net), March 18, 2002.