Newbie wondering...

[acid_chipmunk]

I have read so many posts on here about people wanting to know what sex their babies are. My local feed store takes orders and only sells pullets unless they state otherwise. I take it that not all stores do this (I know TSC doesn't)? It would be very frustrating to me to buy birds and not know exactly what I was getting.

 

[chkinut]

well, yes, that's true....it IS frustrating not to know. i am ordering ONLY pullets from MPC and they should be here in about 10 days!

but sometimes you may have a broody that hatched some eggs, or maybe you hatched some eggs in the bator.....or someone gave u some straight run chicks.....and then you wouldn't know the sex. in my case, i also hatched out some silkies and man-oh-man are THEY gonna take awhile to determine the sex!

the males and females look so much alike it's hard to tell them apart even after they've grown a bit!

 

[Morgan7782]

Also, any said gender is only about 90% accurate. With baby chicks it's up in the air unless they are sex-links. Somebody correct me if I am wrong. When I bought my four chicks from the feed store, the guy made sure to tell me there is a chance one or more could be roosters, that was the reason I got 4 instead of originally planned 2

 

[lizzy06019]

Quote:
agree

 

[gritsar]

Quote:
In addition to that....I can't tell you how many times I've been in the feed store observing the chicks when I've seen someone take a chick out of a bin marked "straight run" i.e., not sexed, hold it for a few seconds and then put it back down in the bin marked "pullets". In short, roos happen.

 

[underground chickenman]

About a month ago, I bought 8 from a feed store brooder labeled "black sex link pullets". I got home and noticed a white spot on the head of one (barred rock, sex in question) and a reddish brown one that I have no idea about its breed. It's not a red sex link. Might be a partridge rock. Anyway, the points about pot luck at feed stores and TSC are right on, as my experience shows.

UGCM

 

[ChickenMama18]

Quote:
The guy at the feed store told me the same thing.

 

[acid_chipmunk]

OK, I understand that. So, I guess you are telling me that I am lucky all of my birds have been pullets? My feed store is a local owned, family store that know us by name when we come in. I won't buy birds from TSC (except for broilers) because they always look sickly to me and I don't want to bring anything home to my babies.

 

[DIMBY]

OK, I'm going to weigh in on this since I have now attained my 1 year anniversary (yesterday) as a chicken owner. This is a true story. I won't say which store I bought my first two chicks from (they are austrolorps). They were in a huge horse trough with dozens of others and the lady who was attending them was very helpful, I had tons of questions. I told her I did not want roosters, she informed me the store only carried straight runs. However....she then said "don't tell anybody I'm doing this" and very quietly she took a needle and thread from her pocket. She picked up a chick, held the dangling needle above it...rooster. Another chick....hen. Third and fourth chicks, roosters...fifth chick, hen. I was like, yeah, right, but I went ahead and got the two "hen" chickens. A couple of weeks later I bought four two-week old chicks from a local breeder (RIRs) who assured me they were all hens.

So, guess what. The two aussies that passed the needle trick are hens. Three out of the 4 RIRs turned out to be....roosters.

BYCers, what do you think of the needle trick?

 

[chickeepoo]

That sounds freaky… but you're saying it worked? What did she do with a dangling needle over the chicks?