Can Buff Orrington be feather sexed?

[knightgang]

Well, we have a guy fairly local that incubated and hatches small batches on a regular basis. However, unless they are sex links, he sells as straight run, not at all sexed. Last time I bought from him, I successfully feather sexed 2 Rhode Island Reds and was correct on them being the pullets I wanted.

So, cab Buff Orpingtons be feather sexed? Is so, I may go get some new hatchlings from him in a few weeks.

Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk

 

[knightgang]

Looks like I found my answer on post #7 of this tread.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/373173/how-do-i-sex-buff-orpington-chicks

I feather sexed a couple of RIR chicks and go them both correct. We saw the difference in the feathers for sure when we saw little roos feathers, all equal length, it was very obvious. Of course I realize that this has to be done within the first few days of hatching. These little ones were on day five when I saw them and feather sexed them.

 

[dheltzel]

"feather sexing" is a sex-linked trait that requires hybridization of special strains. What you did was get lucky. It doesn't work at all reliably with either RIR or Orpingtons.

There are autosexing breeds that are easily sexable and breed true without hybridization. They are getting popular, but not readily available from hatcheries or feed stores - yet.

Examples:
Rhodebars
Cream Legbars
Bielefelders
Welbars