Exactly how do you tell the gender?

[pookiethebear]

of chicks? The guy at TS told of an old farmer's tale of holding the chicks by thier head and if they put up a fight they were roos and if they just hung there they were hens. Well we let him pick our first 6 RIRs and now that they are 16 weeks old I can definately say I have 4 roos of the six. Thankfully I had enough sense not to totally trust him and bought 7 more pullets. So out of 13 chickens I have 4 roos.

I was just wondering how do they know a pullet is a pullet when they are peeps?

 

[ravenfeathers]

here's a good wiki entry on sexing.

 

[Sunny Side Up]

Quote:
That sounds like an awfully cruel thing to do to little chicks, and not at all reliable! That store's owner should be notified of this practice, and if it's not stopped immediately, then reported to the authorities. If you think that's extreme, in my hometown a pet store employee was recently cited for animal cruelty for the way he mistreated a feeder mouse in the store.

Vent sexing is a specialized skill requiring much training & practice. Feather sexing & color sexing is reliable only for certain hybrid breeds. For the rest of us laypeople, we need to rely on the professional sexers at the hatcheries, or wait with anticipation & speculation for further evidence to appear on our chicks.

Of course, I've had some chicks, usually roos, that practically announce their sex from the moment of hatch. Some of these little guys act (literally) "cocky" right from the start. Then there are others who keep you guessing until a crow comes from one end or an egg from the other...

 

[my first peepers]

I think (from what I've read recently) that is supposed to be hold them by their FEET and if they lift their head they are male.

 

[Newfoundchick]

If you hold a chicky by the head, or feet, the weight below would cause serious injuries, or death...

I would know. I went to my friends house and her dad told me to hold it by the head. I did(the chick was a week or 2 old. Then when i set it down, it kept its head down. After a few hours it died...