How to sex the baby chicks?

[Fred's Hens]

What poultry science does know is this. A hen tend to lay a particular shape of egg, with reasonable consistency. We who keep hens note this with some frequency.

What poultry science also knows is that, since the sex of the chick is determined by the hen, AND, that SOME hens tend to reproduce a disproportionate number of male eggs, while some other hens tend to reproduce a disproportionate number of female eggs. Strange as it sounds, apparently, hen A lays mostly male eggs while hen B mostly lays female eggs. Can we extrapolate from that a workable system? I am quite skeptical.

Obviously, nature balances this out in a way that if one takes 1000 fertile eggs and hatches them, as the hatcheries do, the result remains approximately 50/50. That is what poultry science seems to know, at this point.

For absolute certainty!!!!! If a hatchery could predict the sex of the fertilized egg, they'd do it. It is not economical to hatch, and then have to destroy, all those unwanted males chicks. They do this costly method because they, who would stand to gain the most from a workable system, have yet to find one.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Fred, that's exactly why I have so much trouble believing this. If it were this easy, hatcheries would be doing it. Well, plus there is no scientific basis for it, but empirical evidence can get around that.

Just like Kovalines, I have nothing to lose by trying it my next hatch. It's one of my rare hatches where I can actually try something like this. And like Yinepu said, it has to be repeatable. But not just repeatable with a certain flock. It has to be repeatable with any flock.

 

[kovalines]

That's exactly what I think. I have nothing to loose and it won't hurt any chick, so let's try!

About that wives tale of holding the chick by ne neck, have anybody tried it before?

 

[Singlemaple]

I had found that olds wives tail on this forum that's why I'm trying it out there where about 10 people i think that does it i will try to find the forum it was in.

 

[kovalines]

My grandma told me that some years ago too...
Does anybody here has baby chicks sexed and wants to try it?

 

[Singlemaple]

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/435545/sexing-day-old-chicks this is the forum on sexing chicks that explains the hanging chick method.

I'm going to be taking pictures of my 13 chicks daily and i have sexed them by the hanging method and the feathering one i have there toe nails painted to know who is who and i am trying to put together a sexing thing even tho most of my chicks are backyard mutts, I'm doing this as a school project anyone want to join in?

 

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my older black star hen seem to lay different shape and different sized eggs. some are pointy, others are more round, some are a little smaller than the others she lays (but still bigger than any other egg i get)

What poultry science does know is this. A hen tend to lay a particular shape of egg, with reasonable consistency. We who keep hens note this with some frequency.

 

[yinepu]

Lol.. I always get a laugh out of it when someone mentions that hatcheries would use any means available to sex the chicks before the eggs are set if it were possible.. the thing with hatcheries though (and I used to work at one.. so i know).. they like to get a mix hatched out .. not just pullets.. which is why they don't bother to pay someone to sit there and cull eggs based on shape.. the more they have to pay someone to do a needless job (whether it would work or not) is because they are after a profit.. so why pay someone to do something that isn't needed?

pullets generally sell for more than cockerels.. so why give away the more expensive pullets when they are more in demand?.. Person "A" orders the minimum number of pullets.. (like so many people on here do) chances are that the majority of the packing peanuts that the hatchery throws in will be cockerels (doesn't always happen this way.. but most of the time it does).. so it makes sense for the hatchery to throw in the cheaper birds as the freebies.
As it is a hatchery rarely has pullet only orders for every single pullet that hatches out.. so hatching out only pullets would in fact hurt their bottom line

Plus there are silly people like myself that will order JUST cockerels for DP/ freezer campers.. when I order freezer chicks from a DP breed I want all roos... so there is a market for all those extra cockerels since I know I am not the only person who will order just roos

What most people don't realize is that on hatch day ONLY the chicks that are out of their shells and fluffy will get shipped.. the vast majority of hatcheries will toss ANY chick that isn't hatched out all the way.. they don't have time to sit there and coax a chick out of it's shell or wait for one to finish zipping.. Even in hatcheries that are hatching out meaties don't have the time to sit there and wait for a chick to finish hatching.. so any bird regardless of if it's a cockerel or a pullet will get tossed out if they aren't hatched out in time.

Hatcheries want to make as much profit as they can off the hatches.. for them the most economical way to do that is to set any egg that is able to be set.. regardless of the shape
and they don't vent sex every chick that hatches out.. they try to sex just enough to fill the orders for sexed birds.. extras go to the straight run orders and as packing peanuts

 

[yinepu]

my older black star hen seem to lay different shape and different sized eggs. some are pointy, others are more round, some are a little smaller than the others she lays (but still bigger than any other egg i get)

mine lay all different shapes.. I have some hens separated from the main flock.. they never lay the same shape egg day in and day out.. sure they may lay eggs of the same shape several times in a row.. but if a hen lays pointed eggs one day chances are (at least with my girls) that the eggs they lay that same week will have a rounded one in the mix.
for example.. I have one EE hen in with some leghorns (they were being picked on by the dominant hen).. they have their own rooster.. so the EE's pretty green eggs can not be mistaken for the leghorn eggs.. over the course of a month she has laid round eggs.. oval eggs and pointed eggs.
I also have a few several sets of pairs (roo & 1 hen penned by themselves).. the same thing happens where I get an assortment of shapes from each individual hen

 

[Fred's Hens]

Most of the hatcheries are not the smaller hatcheries that sell retail, such as the Ideals, Meyers, or Cackles of the world. These hatcheries only represent a fraction of the industry. Most of the eggs are hatched by and for the gigantic commercial egg laying industry which dwarfs the retail retail side of the business. These hatcheries don't sell straight runs, fill small orders, include packing peanuts, etc.

Technology already exists that could easily sort the eggs, by shape, at conveyor belt speed. Sorting technology is already in use by many, many industries and doesn't require people handling individual objects.