How to Sex Your Chicks

[VolailleAmant]

Hello!
What is the best way to sex your chicks without hurting them or causing trouble.....

Please share anything you can!
Thank you,
-VA

 

[debid]

There are a lot of techniques online that are about as accurate as flipping a coin. If you happen to have an autosexing breed or chicks from a sexlink cross, you can tell by color. Otherwise, you'll just have to wait for them to hit chicken puberty.

 

[PD-Riverman]

Hello!
What is the best way to sex your chicks without hurting them or causing trouble.....

Please share anything you can!
Thank you,
-VA

Usually in 2 3 months you can start seeing the difference in a male and female or if in doubt you can wait till they crow or lay.

 

[VolailleAmant]

There are a lot of techniques online that are about as accurate as flipping a coin. If you happen to have an autosexing breed or chicks from a sexlink cross, you can tell by color. Otherwise, you'll just have to wait for them to hit chicken puberty.

Thank you!
I have Belgian Bearded Mille Fleur d'Uccles, Buff and Splash Silkies, Silver Sebrights and Brassy Back OEGB. They are just 2 days old.
I ask this b/c I don't want to end up with 20 males out of a 28-bird order!

yes, I agree, I guess that I'll just have to wait....time will tell.
Thanks!

 

[VolailleAmant]

Usually in 2 3 months you can start seeing the difference in a male and female or if in doubt you can wait till they crow or lay.

Yes, I guess that I will have to! The Egyptian Fayoumi is said to mature very rapidly: laying at about 4 months!

Thank you!
-VA

 

[VolailleAmant]

I have hear from one of my friend [ who raise chickens ] that one way to sex them is as follows:
Females: Hold the chick in your hand so that their back is in your palm, with their chest upward, if their legs come up and press against the chicks chest, it is a hen.
Males: Hold the chick just as the female, but instead, if the chick's legs stick out or 1 leg is folded and the other one is sticking out....It's a boy!

-VA

 

[azygous]

There is feather sexing but it's only applicable to breeds that have been bred for it, to have males with retarded wing feather growth and pullets with early growth.

Unless you know for sure you have these breeds, it's not 100% accurate. Or even mostly accurate, but better than nothing.

Look at the wing tips. You should see much less feather growth on the boys, the wing stubs showing only a hint of feathers, in even rows. The girls will have much longer feather starts in staggered rows. By three days old, the boys are noticeably behind with only stubs for wings.

 

[VolailleAmant]

There is feather sexing but it's only applicable to breeds that have been bred for it, to have males with retarded wing feather growth and pullets with early growth.

Unless you know for sure you have these breeds, it's not 100% accurate. Or even mostly accurate, but better than nothing.

Look at the wing tips. You should see much less feather growth on the boys, the wing stubs showing only a hint of feathers, in even rows. The girls will have much longer feather starts in staggered rows. By three days old, the boys are noticeably behind with only stubs for wings.

Thank you

 

[debid]

I have hear from one of my friend [ who raise chickens ] that one way to sex them is as follows:
​Females: ​Hold the chick in your hand so that their back is in your palm, with their chest upward, if their legs come up and press against the chicks chest, it is a hen.
Males: ​Hold the chick just as the female, but instead, if the chick's legs stick out or 1 leg is folded and the other one is sticking out....It's a boy!

-VA

And it's right 50% of the time!

This is exactly the sort of thing I was talking about. If it worked, the hatcheries wouldn't bother hiring experts to vent sex. And that is how they do most of their sexing.

The feather sexable birds are commercial layer types that have enough volume associated that it makes the investment of time into breeding pay off with the savings in sexing labor. It takes much less training to examine a wing. But, none of the birds you have are feather sexable.

 

[VolailleAmant]

Yeah, because I have Bantams.
Time indeed will tell