.
We’ve all heard them, those crazy methods for sexing chicks that sound too far-fetched to be true. Often, they are not even backed by good reasoning, and so any logical person would chuckle at the suggestion and brush it off as absurd. But so many swear by these methods that one has to wonder, could they possibly work?
Anyone who has discovered the addictive nature of hatching chicks could use a simpler and easier way of sexing the many chicks they hatch, right? And why would these methods gather such a following if they did not work?
To test these methods, possibly the best route would be to hatch hundreds of chicks, test all of them, and report the results once they have matured enough to determine their actual sex. Unfortunately, I have neither the time nor the coop space for such a task. Instead, I will be performing these various methods on as many chicks as I can as I hatch or buy them, and then gathering the data from all of these chicks here over time.
Both straight-run and sexed chicks may be included here, but because knowing the sex of the chicks beforehand may cause some subconscious skewing, results from sexed chicks will always be reported separately from those of unsexed chicks.
That means I will NOT be lifting them by their beaks, wings, heads, feet, or the backs of their necks, or doing any other method that sounds like it could be harmful to them. To me, enough people have tried these methods unsuccessfully that it is not worth me compromising the health or trust of my chicks just for this experiment.
Beyond that, if it seems silly or far-fetched, or it’s very different than any of the other methods I’ve tried, I’m willing to give it a shot! I’m also open to suggestions, so if you have a method that is sufficiently different than the ones already listed on this page, feel free to send it to me in a PM! My guess is that over time each test will fall closer and closer to the 50-50 mark on how accurate it is the more chicks I test with them. However, with any luck, perhaps I'll prove that some of these tests really do work!
Chicks subjected to sexing methods will be of various breeds, all under the age of 4 weeks old when tested. Subjects are grouped below by hatch date, breed, and whether or not they were sexed. Subjects from previous broods of chicks will be hidden in 'Spoiler' drop-downs to keep the page a bit shorter. Click the green boxes below to see pictures and more information about previous subjects.
Hatch date: January 4 and 5, 2017
Variety and Breed: Partridge and Red Cochin bantam
Identification: Numbers were used to distinguish the red chicks in the result spreadsheet
Hatch date: March 3 and 4, 2018
Variety and Breed: Black Copper / Birchen Marans
Identification: Each chick is identified in the spreadsheet by the number marking written on his or her egg.
Hatch date: May 12 and 13, 2018
Variety and Breed: Red Cochin bantam
Identification: These chicks were identified by leg band color and their spreadsheet IDs reflect those colors.
Hatch date: May 21, 2018
Variety and Breed: Mottled Cochin bantam
Identification: These chicks were also identified by leg band color.
Hatch date: March 27, 2019
Variety and Breed: Khaki and Fawn Silver Duckwing Old English Game bantam
Identification: These chicks were identified in the spreadsheet by leg band color, except for Mar19-EGKSD who was the only of his color and easily distinguishable.
Hatch date: April 19 and 20, 2019
Variety and Breed: White Silkie x Easter-egger mixes and a bantam Cochin x Easter-egger mix
Identification: The two white chicks were identified by their leg band color in the spreadsheet. The blue chick was the only one of that appearance and needed no additional ID.
Hatch date: April 22, 2019
Variety and Breed: Easter-egger bantam
Identification: These chicks were identified by their down color, as they were different enough in appearance not to need leg bands.
Hatch date: April 1 (Re) and 2 (the other three), 2020
Variety and Breed: silkied Black and White Cochin bantams
Identification: The Blacks are identified by their leg band color. Since the White was the only one to hatch, she is identified only by her variety.
Hatch date: June 4 and 5, 2020
Variety and Breed: White Silkie x silkied Partridge Cochin bantam mixes
Identification: Identified by their leg band colors
Hatch date: June 4 and 5, 2020
Variety and Breed: Khaki Silver Duckwing Old English Game bantams
Identification: Identified by their leg band colors
Hatch date: February 15 and March 1, 2021
Variety and Breed: Khaki Silver Duckwing Old English Game bantam
Identification: Feb21-EGKSD-B was the only one to hatch in her group and was identified by her name, Bee. Mar21-EGKSD-R was identified by his leg band color
Hatch date: April 9, 2021
Variety and Breed: Black Copper Marans
Identification: The only one to hatch, so just identified by breed and hatch date
Hatch date: May 26 and 27, 2021
Variety and Breed: silkied Blue and Black Cochin bantams
Identification: Identified by hatch order for this brood
Hatch date: June 2 and 3, 2021
Variety and Breed: Chocolate Mottled and Crele English Orpingtons
Identification: The Chocolate Mottleds are identified by their leg band color. Since the Crele was the only one to hatch, he is identified only by his variety and hatch date.
Hatch date: July 6, 2021
Variety and Breed: Barred Plymouth Rock bantam
Identification: Identified by their leg band colors. Since there were six chicks and only five leg band colors, the last is identified as N for 'no leg band'.
Hatch date: May 21, 2018
Variety and Breed: Silver Gray Dorking pullets
Identification: These chicks were identified by the first initial of their leg band color, plus a letter P to show that they are pullets.
Hatch date: April 22, 2019
Variety and Breed: Easter-egger, large fowl pullets
Identification: These chicks were identified by the first initial of their down color, plus a letter P to show that they are pullets.
Hatch date: June 4 and 5, 2020
Variety and Breed: Silver Dckwing and Fawn Silver Duckwing Old English Game bantams
Identification: They were the only one of their respective varieties to hatch, and so are simply identified by their variety and hatch date.
Hatch date: June 4 and 5, 2020
Variety and Breed: White Silkie x silkied Partridge Cochin bantam mixes
Identification: The female is identified by being the only dark chick of her siblings to hatch. The male is identified by his leg band color.
Hatch date: February 22 and March 1, 2021
Variety and Breed: Fawn Silver Duckwing Old English Game bantam cockerels
Identification: Identified by their leg band colors; the '2' is because the original B, P, and Y eggs did not hatch, and so these chicks were from eggs B2, P2, and Y2.
Hatch date: July 6, 2021
Variety and Breed: Two Blue Orpington pullets and a Cream Legbar pullet
Identification: The Orpingtons are identified by how dark or light their chick down was compared to the other. The Legbar was the only of her breed and so simply identified by that.
Hatch date: April 16 (naked neck) and 17 (Cochin), 2022
Variety and Breed: Naked neck bantam and silkied Black Cochin bantam
Identification: They were the only of their breeds to hatch so they are simply identified by their hatch dates and breeds.
Hatch date: June 8 to 10, 2022
Variety and Breed: Silkied Black Cochin bantams, silkied Blue Cochin bantams, Chocolate Cochin bantams, and a mixed color Cochin Bantam
Identification: Identified by approximate hatch order. Two of the Black chicks were hatched from my flock, so given numbers G1 and G2 for their father, Gus.
To keep the page a bit shorter, please click the green boxes below to open the spoilers and read the different methods. If you're simply returning to check on the results, then you can leave the spoiler closed and not have to scroll past all of the descriptions again. New methods will be added by year to new spoiler boxes so that if a new method is being used, you no longer have to hunt for its description within one big, disorganized box.
This is a classic method that is used by big hatcheries, but the thing that people don’t take into account is that it is a trait that must be bred for—not every chick from every source will be accurately sexed using this method! The reason I chose to add this one to the experiment is because so many people spread it as a 100% true sexing method for all chicks. In wing sexing, when the chicks are only a few days old at most, males have a short, even row of pin feathers on their wings, and females have a staggered row of short and long pin feathers on their wings. The picture below (from this thread) shows the difference.
Tail Feather Method
I believe this is an extension of the above method, but I figured it was worth mentioning. In this method, females get their tail feathers in sooner than males.
According to this method, when tapping the chicks on the tail, only males chirp in response, and females are silent.
In this method, you gently pull on the chicks’ tails. If they are male, they chirp in response, while if they are female, they are silent.
This is a method that many, MANY people swear by, both for sexing chicks and unborn human babies, too! In this method, you hang a metal needle from a thread above the chick. If it moves back and forth in a straight line, the chick is male. If it makes a little circle with its swing, the chick is female.
In this method, you carefully lay the chick on its back in your hand. If it struggles to right itself, it is male. If it relaxes and just lays there, it is female.
In this method, you carefully lay the chick on its back in your hand. If it stretches its legs out, it is male, while if it keeps its legs tucked in, it is female. I considered all tests in which the chick consistently kept one leg tucked and stretched out the other to be inconclusive.
In this method, you surprise the chicks in one way or another and gauge how they react. Many people suggest throwing a hat into the brooder, but one can also make a loud noise, BRIEFLY flap a flag or cloth over the brooder or any other method that might surprise the chicks. If a chick stands up or stays where it’s standing, it is male. If a chick ducks down or runs for cover, it is female. For this experiment, I made a loud noise.
In this method, you dangle a piece of string in the brooder. If a chick pecks it twice or more, it is male. If it pecks the string only once or is disinterested, it is female.
According to this method, when picking up a chick, only the males chirp indignantly. Females remain silent.
For this method, you must wait until the chicks have tail feathers. When holding them, if you tip them forward suddenly, only females fan their tail feathers. Males don’t move their tails.
For this method, you rub a penny on the back of the chick in question and then flip the coin. If it lands on heads, the chick is male, and if it lands on tails, the chick is female.
According to this method, when offered a dish of plain water beside a dish of white vinegar water (at the rate of 1 tablespoon of white vinegar per 8 ounces of water), males will prefer plain water and females will prefer vinegar water. To make sure the water was the only thing the chicks were deciding on, I used identical dishes with identical amounts of fluid in them.
According to this method, male and female chicks have different vent opening shapes. This is not the same as vent sexing, which requires one to know the difference between the internal part of the vent, but is instead simply looking at the shape of the vent from the outside. Males have small, round vent openings, and females have wider, oval-shaped vent openings. Because this can vary a bit, I compared like breeds to like breeds for vent shape.
This method states that chicks whose combs end at or past the front edge of their nostrils are male, and chicks whose combs end before there are female. See this thread for more details: Comb Sexing Chicks
Egg Shape Method
I am putting this one last because I will not be able to use this method on all chicks. By this method, males hatch out of narrow, pointy eggs, and females hatch out of shorter, rounder eggs from the same hen. All eggs hatched through 2018 were "eyeballed", not measured, and compared to one another, not to just any other egg. This method was used because I believe that's how most backyarders tend to do this test.
I will not be selecting eggs based on shape for this method (in other words, I will incubate eggs regardless of their roundness or pointiness), but I will record the egg shapes of each egg and track which chick hatches out of which egg.
According to this method, at approximately one week old or when wing feathers have only just come in, males will have a distinct gap or split between the primary and secondary wing feathers, while females' wings will be lacking this gap. The below images show what I considered to be a split and the lack of a split in one-week-old chicks' wing feathers.
Pick Up Method II
This method is technically not new for this year, but a modification of an older method that I believe I was doing incorrectly. Rather than holding the chicks steady to see if they allow their feet to dangle or hold them up, as was what I was doing before, I will instead be checking to see if they pull their feet up or allow them to dangle as they are being lifted. Chicks who pull their feet up are said to be pullets, while chicks who allow their feet to dangle are said to be cockerels.
This method is also not new, per se, but was modified slightly for 2019. As of this year, I'm measuring each egg from the same hen to find an average length-to-width ratio, which is used to determine which eggs are pointy and which are round.
All eggs from the same hen are measured for length and width, from which a ratio (in the form of a number between 0.5 and 1.0) is calculated by dividing the width by the length. From these ratios, an average is calculated for the hen. Because the closer to 1.0 a ratio is, the more similar the length and width are, meaning the more round the egg is, anything above the average is considered round, while anything below it is considered pointy.
Anything equal to the average by at least 3 decimal places (the certainty at which the calipers measure) will be considered 'inconclusive'. I again will not be selecting for pointiness or roundness; all eggs, regardless of shape, go into the incubator.
Pullets are said to hatch from round eggs, while cockerels are said to hatch from pointy eggs.
According to this method, chicks with straight combs can be identified as male or female at 2-3 weeks old by how their comb is shaped. Cockerels' combs are said to curve out when viewed from the side, while pullets' combs stay smooth against their head until they're older. See the below picture for an example; the red lines are to help with visualizing the comb's shape.
Wing Shape Method
Likely another extension of the wing sexing method, or possibly of the wing split method, the wing shape method states that you can identify chicks by the shape of their wings at 1-2 weeks old, or once their wing feathers have come in enough. When wings are spread out, pullets are said to have a bumped shape, almost as if the wing has two distinct sections, while cockerels do not. I'll add picture examples as soon as possible!
Similar to the Tail Tap method, this method states that vocalizations differ between male and female chicks when tapped lightly on the head. Males are said to chirp loudly and sharply, while females are silent or "whistle sweetly".
According to this method, eggs whose air cell is centered in the large end of the egg will hatch male chicks, while eggs whose air cell is to the side will hatch female chicks.
This method states that, when compared to one another, male chicks will have thicker middle toes than female chicks of the same age.
According to this method, when a chick is picked up around its body from above and its feet are allowed to dangle, a female will pull its feet up and a male will just let its feet dangle.
RETIRED as of the end of the 2018 chick season - I believe I may have misinterpreted this test, as literally every chick I've tested has had the same result. I am modifying this test for future chick seasons. Please see the Pick Up II method in the 2019 new methods section.
You can view all of the raw data and results on this Google Spreadsheet (this doesn't work very well on mobile and is best viewed on a computer; apologies for any inconvenience). There are tabs at the bottom to switch between results by test and results by chick. Please note that I will not add any chick's results to the 'results by test' tab on the spreadsheet OR to the below graphs until their sex is confirmed! I will, however, put them in the 'results by chick' section in the spreadsheet as a means of recording the data until the results can be confirmed.
The spread of male, female, and inconclusive predictions by test for straight run chicks. At a minimum, 15 chicks were tested in each method, and at maximum, there were 75 chicks tested. On the right is the actual ratio of males and females so far.
The accuracy of each test on straight-run chicks is depicted in below graph showing the percentage of correct predictions by test. To emphasize results, faint gray lines have been added to show which tests have fallen within 10% of the 50% correct line. Again, some tests were performed on more chicks than others, with a minimum of 15 and a maximum of 75 chicks so far.
The below graphs show the percentage of correct predictions made by each method, separated by breed. Only straight-run chicks are included in these graphs. When separated out by breed, more tests were able to achieve exactly or close to 100% accuracy. However, sample sizes are still small (as few as one single chicks in one case), so these results are not very strong evidence of anything yet.
Bantam Cochins - As many as 27 and as few as 5 chicks were tested for the percentages in the below graph.
Dorkings - As many as 10 and as few as 9 chicks were tested for the percentages in the below graph.
Marans - As many as 11 and as few as 1 chick was tested for the percentages in the below graph.
Old English Game Bantams - As many as 10 and as few as 2 chicks were tested for the percentages in the below graph.
Easter-Eggers - As many as 5 and as few as 3 chicks were tested for the percentages in the below graph.
Orpingtons - Only 3 chicks were tested for the percentages in the below graph.
Plymouth Rock Bantams - A total of 6 chicks were tested for the percentages in the below graph.
The below graphs show the spread of male, female, and inconclusive predictions for sexed chicks, as well as the percentage of correct predictions on sexed chicks. As many as 15 and as few as 4 chicks have been tested for these graphs, so these results should not be considered strong evidence of anything at this point.
Discussion
None of the currently in-use tests have had uniform reactions in all chicks they were performed on. This is important to note because it eliminates the possibility of any of these reactions to any of the tests just being what chicks do in response to that specific type of stimulus.
Inconclusive predictions occur in seven of the twenty tests; essentially, the chicks responded in an unexpected way, or in a way that did not align with what that test says responses should be. In most cases, this is just a few chicks who, over the course of testing a group, happen to respond differently to the same test when erroneously performed on them a second time.
This is the case for the inconclusive chicks in the Tail Tap, Tail Pull, and Pick Up tests. This could be an indicator that, should these tests be performed repeatedly on the same chicks, their response might vary from day to day, or moment to moment. However, the number of chicks that were erroneously tested a second time and responded the same way was not recorded, so it’s also possible that these inconclusive chicks are merely outliers.
Inconclusive chicks in the Comb Length test are entirely a result of an unpracticed eye in the first year of using this test; excluding that year, no other years had inconclusive results in that test. When ignoring those inconclusive tests, the accuracy of this test rises from about 46.7% to 50.7%, making it slightly more accurate, but still firmly at the 50-50 mark for correct predictions.
The test with the most inconclusive predictions is the Leg Stretch test. This is because the test accounts for chicks who stretch their legs out and chicks who pull their legs in but does not account for chicks who keep one leg pulled in and stretch the other leg out. As it is, the test makes predictions at a rate of about 42.9% male and 38.6% female, with the remaining approximately 18.6% predictions being inconclusive one-in-one-out chicks.
Some say that chicks should be considered male if even one of their legs is stretched out. If we were to consider this to be the case, then the percentages would instead be about 61.4% male and 38.6% female predictions. This would change its accuracy from only 38.6% correct to 51.4% correct predictions, putting it close to a 50-50 shot of accurately predicting the sex of a chick, as is expected from these tests.
Only six of the twenty tests fall outside of the markers for 50 ± 10% on the graph for percent correct predictions by test. Of those six tests, four are the newest tests added to the roster and as such are the four tests that have been performed on the fewest chicks. Because of this, it is hard to say if these tests are truly distant from that expected 50% mark, or if it’s simply a matter of not enough data having been collected yet.
That said, both the Lay on Back and Leg Stretch tests also fall outside of those marks and have been performed on 75 and 70 chicks, respectively.
The most accurate test according to the percent correct predictions graph is the Comb Shape test, accurately predicting 19 of the 22 straight run chicks it has been performed on, or about 86.4% of straight run chicks. The percent correct prediction graphs that are split by breed seem to indicate that this test is less accurate on slow-to-mature breeds like Orpingtons, while more accurate on fast-to-mature breeds like Old English Game bantams.
This likely means that breed is a factor in the accuracy of this test; however, sample sizes are still small breed by breed, so it’s hard to come to strong conclusions based on that.
Knowing the sex of the chicks beforehand does not seem to sway the results of each test by much if the graphs for sexed chicks are any indication. The numbers of sexed chicks tested thus far remain relatively small, only 15 at the most, and so percentages of predictions and the accuracy of them could change by quite a bit by the time those numbers are closer to that of the unsexed chicks in the other tests.
In conclusion, as one might expect from these old wives’ tale sexing methods, most have turned out to be about as accurate as a coin flip, with few exceptions. As more data is added annually, it is my sincere hope that these tests will continue to be proven ineffective, or continue to show their potential as early chick sexing methods for others who, like me, do not have the training or nerve to vent sex chicks as hatcheries do.
.
An Experiment in Chick Sexing Methods
We’ve all heard them, those crazy methods for sexing chicks that sound too far-fetched to be true. Often, they are not even backed by good reasoning, and so any logical person would chuckle at the suggestion and brush it off as absurd. But so many swear by these methods that one has to wonder, could they possibly work?
Anyone who has discovered the addictive nature of hatching chicks could use a simpler and easier way of sexing the many chicks they hatch, right? And why would these methods gather such a following if they did not work?
To test these methods, possibly the best route would be to hatch hundreds of chicks, test all of them, and report the results once they have matured enough to determine their actual sex. Unfortunately, I have neither the time nor the coop space for such a task. Instead, I will be performing these various methods on as many chicks as I can as I hatch or buy them, and then gathering the data from all of these chicks here over time.
Both straight-run and sexed chicks may be included here, but because knowing the sex of the chicks beforehand may cause some subconscious skewing, results from sexed chicks will always be reported separately from those of unsexed chicks.
Chick sexing methods were chosen by their commonness, strangeness, seeming unlikeliness, or in some cases what seemed like logical reasoning behind them. However, I did have just one ground rule in choosing sexing methods. I decided before I started this experiment that I would NOT do any method that I believe may hurt or cause trauma to any of these chicks. That means I will NOT be lifting them by their beaks, wings, heads, feet, or the backs of their necks, or doing any other method that sounds like it could be harmful to them. To me, enough people have tried these methods unsuccessfully that it is not worth me compromising the health or trust of my chicks just for this experiment.
Beyond that, if it seems silly or far-fetched, or it’s very different than any of the other methods I’ve tried, I’m willing to give it a shot! I’m also open to suggestions, so if you have a method that is sufficiently different than the ones already listed on this page, feel free to send it to me in a PM! My guess is that over time each test will fall closer and closer to the 50-50 mark on how accurate it is the more chicks I test with them. However, with any luck, perhaps I'll prove that some of these tests really do work!
Test Subjects
Chicks subjected to sexing methods will be of various breeds, all under the age of 4 weeks old when tested. Subjects are grouped below by hatch date, breed, and whether or not they were sexed. Subjects from previous broods of chicks will be hidden in 'Spoiler' drop-downs to keep the page a bit shorter. Click the green boxes below to see pictures and more information about previous subjects.
I have overhauled my ID system to make it more uniform over all the chicks, and to make it easier to look at each ID and know exactly what kind of chick each one was and what year they're from. Each ID has three sections, separated by dashes:
- The first section shows the month and year that the chick hatched, abbreviated to save space. This makes it so I no longer have to come up with unique IDs for subsequent chicks of the same breed and variety and with the same leg band color each year, as they'll now have a hatch date to distinguish them.
- The second section has five letters in most cases; the first two letters represent the chick's breed, and the last three letters represent its variety (please see the ID Guide section of the results spreadsheet for the symbols and their meanings). If the second section begins with 'Mix', then the chick is a mixed breed and the following four letters tell you the chick's parents' breeds with the father's breed listed first.
- The last section of the chick's ID is an individual marker for within a brood, usually two letters representing their leg band or marker marking color, though some of them were distinguished by number or marking shape. Some chicks were the only of their variety in a group and didn't need to have that third section in their ID.
Straight Run (unsexed) Chicks
Hatch date: January 4 and 5, 2017
Variety and Breed: Partridge and Red Cochin bantam
Identification: Numbers were used to distinguish the red chicks in the result spreadsheet
The hatch date for all of these chicks is assumed to be April 3, 2017.
Variety and Breed: Dark Gray Dorking
Identification: Chicks were marked with marker colors so that I could tell them apart. Their IDs on the results spreadsheet reflect their marker color.
Variety and Breed: Red Dorking
Identification: Because marker color didn't show up well on these chicks, shapes were used instead as markings to tell them apart. The chick identified as Sq was distinguishable by her leg issues.
Variety and Breed: Black Copper Marans
Identification: Marker color was visible on these chicks' chests, and so they were distinguished by color as well.
Variety and Breed: Wheaten Marans
Identification: This was the only surviving Wheaten Marans chick, and so she required no additional ID beyond Apr17-MaWhe.
Variety and Breed: Dark Gray Dorking
Identification: Chicks were marked with marker colors so that I could tell them apart. Their IDs on the results spreadsheet reflect their marker color.
Variety and Breed: Red Dorking
Identification: Because marker color didn't show up well on these chicks, shapes were used instead as markings to tell them apart. The chick identified as Sq was distinguishable by her leg issues.
Variety and Breed: Black Copper Marans
Identification: Marker color was visible on these chicks' chests, and so they were distinguished by color as well.
Variety and Breed: Wheaten Marans
Identification: This was the only surviving Wheaten Marans chick, and so she required no additional ID beyond Apr17-MaWhe.
Hatch date: March 3 and 4, 2018
Variety and Breed: Black Copper / Birchen Marans
Identification: Each chick is identified in the spreadsheet by the number marking written on his or her egg.
Hatch date: May 12 and 13, 2018
Variety and Breed: Red Cochin bantam
Identification: These chicks were identified by leg band color and their spreadsheet IDs reflect those colors.
Hatch date: May 21, 2018
Variety and Breed: Mottled Cochin bantam
Identification: These chicks were also identified by leg band color.
Variety and Breed: Khaki and Fawn Silver Duckwing Old English Game bantam
Identification: These chicks were identified in the spreadsheet by leg band color, except for Mar19-EGKSD who was the only of his color and easily distinguishable.
Hatch date: April 19 and 20, 2019
Variety and Breed: White Silkie x Easter-egger mixes and a bantam Cochin x Easter-egger mix
Identification: The two white chicks were identified by their leg band color in the spreadsheet. The blue chick was the only one of that appearance and needed no additional ID.
Hatch date: April 22, 2019
Variety and Breed: Easter-egger bantam
Identification: These chicks were identified by their down color, as they were different enough in appearance not to need leg bands.
Hatch date: April 1 (Re) and 2 (the other three), 2020
Variety and Breed: silkied Black and White Cochin bantams
Identification: The Blacks are identified by their leg band color. Since the White was the only one to hatch, she is identified only by her variety.
Hatch date: June 4 and 5, 2020
Variety and Breed: White Silkie x silkied Partridge Cochin bantam mixes
Identification: Identified by their leg band colors
Hatch date: June 4 and 5, 2020
Variety and Breed: Khaki Silver Duckwing Old English Game bantams
Identification: Identified by their leg band colors
Hatch date: February 15 and March 1, 2021
Variety and Breed: Khaki Silver Duckwing Old English Game bantam
Identification: Feb21-EGKSD-B was the only one to hatch in her group and was identified by her name, Bee. Mar21-EGKSD-R was identified by his leg band color
Hatch date: April 9, 2021
Variety and Breed: Black Copper Marans
Identification: The only one to hatch, so just identified by breed and hatch date
Hatch date: May 26 and 27, 2021
Variety and Breed: silkied Blue and Black Cochin bantams
Identification: Identified by hatch order for this brood
Hatch date: June 2 and 3, 2021
Variety and Breed: Chocolate Mottled and Crele English Orpingtons
Identification: The Chocolate Mottleds are identified by their leg band color. Since the Crele was the only one to hatch, he is identified only by his variety and hatch date.
Hatch date: July 6, 2021
Variety and Breed: Barred Plymouth Rock bantam
Identification: Identified by their leg band colors. Since there were six chicks and only five leg band colors, the last is identified as N for 'no leg band'.
Sexed Chicks
Hatch date: May 21, 2018
Variety and Breed: Silver Gray Dorking pullets
Identification: These chicks were identified by the first initial of their leg band color, plus a letter P to show that they are pullets.
Hatch date: April 22, 2019
Variety and Breed: Easter-egger, large fowl pullets
Identification: These chicks were identified by the first initial of their down color, plus a letter P to show that they are pullets.
Hatch date: June 4 and 5, 2020
Variety and Breed: Silver Dckwing and Fawn Silver Duckwing Old English Game bantams
Identification: They were the only one of their respective varieties to hatch, and so are simply identified by their variety and hatch date.
Hatch date: June 4 and 5, 2020
Variety and Breed: White Silkie x silkied Partridge Cochin bantam mixes
Identification: The female is identified by being the only dark chick of her siblings to hatch. The male is identified by his leg band color.
Hatch date: February 22 and March 1, 2021
Variety and Breed: Fawn Silver Duckwing Old English Game bantam cockerels
Identification: Identified by their leg band colors; the '2' is because the original B, P, and Y eggs did not hatch, and so these chicks were from eggs B2, P2, and Y2.
Hatch date: July 6, 2021
Variety and Breed: Two Blue Orpington pullets and a Cream Legbar pullet
Identification: The Orpingtons are identified by how dark or light their chick down was compared to the other. The Legbar was the only of her breed and so simply identified by that.
Current Subjects
Hatch date: April 16 (naked neck) and 17 (Cochin), 2022
Variety and Breed: Naked neck bantam and silkied Black Cochin bantam
Identification: They were the only of their breeds to hatch so they are simply identified by their hatch dates and breeds.
Hatch date: June 8 to 10, 2022
Variety and Breed: Silkied Black Cochin bantams, silkied Blue Cochin bantams, Chocolate Cochin bantams, and a mixed color Cochin Bantam
Identification: Identified by approximate hatch order. Two of the Black chicks were hatched from my flock, so given numbers G1 and G2 for their father, Gus.
Methods
Below, you will find details of all of the sexing methods used in this experiment. The names of these tests is what will be used in tables and figures in the Results section. Due to time constraints, not all chicks have been tested with every sexing method. It will be apparent when a test has not been performed on every chick by the tables and figures in the Results section.To keep the page a bit shorter, please click the green boxes below to open the spoilers and read the different methods. If you're simply returning to check on the results, then you can leave the spoiler closed and not have to scroll past all of the descriptions again. New methods will be added by year to new spoiler boxes so that if a new method is being used, you no longer have to hunt for its description within one big, disorganized box.
Wing Sexing
This is a classic method that is used by big hatcheries, but the thing that people don’t take into account is that it is a trait that must be bred for—not every chick from every source will be accurately sexed using this method! The reason I chose to add this one to the experiment is because so many people spread it as a 100% true sexing method for all chicks. In wing sexing, when the chicks are only a few days old at most, males have a short, even row of pin feathers on their wings, and females have a staggered row of short and long pin feathers on their wings. The picture below (from this thread) shows the difference.
Tail Feather Method
I believe this is an extension of the above method, but I figured it was worth mentioning. In this method, females get their tail feathers in sooner than males.
Tail Tap Method
According to this method, when tapping the chicks on the tail, only males chirp in response, and females are silent.
Tail Pull Method
In this method, you gently pull on the chicks’ tails. If they are male, they chirp in response, while if they are female, they are silent.
Needle and Thread Pendulum Method
This is a method that many, MANY people swear by, both for sexing chicks and unborn human babies, too! In this method, you hang a metal needle from a thread above the chick. If it moves back and forth in a straight line, the chick is male. If it makes a little circle with its swing, the chick is female.
Lay-on-Back Method
In this method, you carefully lay the chick on its back in your hand. If it struggles to right itself, it is male. If it relaxes and just lays there, it is female.
Leg Stretch Method
In this method, you carefully lay the chick on its back in your hand. If it stretches its legs out, it is male, while if it keeps its legs tucked in, it is female. I considered all tests in which the chick consistently kept one leg tucked and stretched out the other to be inconclusive.
Surprise Method
In this method, you surprise the chicks in one way or another and gauge how they react. Many people suggest throwing a hat into the brooder, but one can also make a loud noise, BRIEFLY flap a flag or cloth over the brooder or any other method that might surprise the chicks. If a chick stands up or stays where it’s standing, it is male. If a chick ducks down or runs for cover, it is female. For this experiment, I made a loud noise.
String Peck Method
In this method, you dangle a piece of string in the brooder. If a chick pecks it twice or more, it is male. If it pecks the string only once or is disinterested, it is female.
Pick Up Chirp Method
According to this method, when picking up a chick, only the males chirp indignantly. Females remain silent.
Tail Fan Method
For this method, you must wait until the chicks have tail feathers. When holding them, if you tip them forward suddenly, only females fan their tail feathers. Males don’t move their tails.
Penny Toss Method
For this method, you rub a penny on the back of the chick in question and then flip the coin. If it lands on heads, the chick is male, and if it lands on tails, the chick is female.
Vinegar Water Method
According to this method, when offered a dish of plain water beside a dish of white vinegar water (at the rate of 1 tablespoon of white vinegar per 8 ounces of water), males will prefer plain water and females will prefer vinegar water. To make sure the water was the only thing the chicks were deciding on, I used identical dishes with identical amounts of fluid in them.
Vent Shape Method
According to this method, male and female chicks have different vent opening shapes. This is not the same as vent sexing, which requires one to know the difference between the internal part of the vent, but is instead simply looking at the shape of the vent from the outside. Males have small, round vent openings, and females have wider, oval-shaped vent openings. Because this can vary a bit, I compared like breeds to like breeds for vent shape.
Comb Length Method
This method states that chicks whose combs end at or past the front edge of their nostrils are male, and chicks whose combs end before there are female. See this thread for more details: Comb Sexing Chicks
Egg Shape Method
I am putting this one last because I will not be able to use this method on all chicks. By this method, males hatch out of narrow, pointy eggs, and females hatch out of shorter, rounder eggs from the same hen. All eggs hatched through 2018 were "eyeballed", not measured, and compared to one another, not to just any other egg. This method was used because I believe that's how most backyarders tend to do this test.
I will not be selecting eggs based on shape for this method (in other words, I will incubate eggs regardless of their roundness or pointiness), but I will record the egg shapes of each egg and track which chick hatches out of which egg.
Wing Split Method
According to this method, at approximately one week old or when wing feathers have only just come in, males will have a distinct gap or split between the primary and secondary wing feathers, while females' wings will be lacking this gap. The below images show what I considered to be a split and the lack of a split in one-week-old chicks' wing feathers.
Pick Up Method II
This method is technically not new for this year, but a modification of an older method that I believe I was doing incorrectly. Rather than holding the chicks steady to see if they allow their feet to dangle or hold them up, as was what I was doing before, I will instead be checking to see if they pull their feet up or allow them to dangle as they are being lifted. Chicks who pull their feet up are said to be pullets, while chicks who allow their feet to dangle are said to be cockerels.
Egg Shape Method
This method is also not new, per se, but was modified slightly for 2019. As of this year, I'm measuring each egg from the same hen to find an average length-to-width ratio, which is used to determine which eggs are pointy and which are round.
All eggs from the same hen are measured for length and width, from which a ratio (in the form of a number between 0.5 and 1.0) is calculated by dividing the width by the length. From these ratios, an average is calculated for the hen. Because the closer to 1.0 a ratio is, the more similar the length and width are, meaning the more round the egg is, anything above the average is considered round, while anything below it is considered pointy.
Anything equal to the average by at least 3 decimal places (the certainty at which the calipers measure) will be considered 'inconclusive'. I again will not be selecting for pointiness or roundness; all eggs, regardless of shape, go into the incubator.
Pullets are said to hatch from round eggs, while cockerels are said to hatch from pointy eggs.
Comb Shape Method
According to this method, chicks with straight combs can be identified as male or female at 2-3 weeks old by how their comb is shaped. Cockerels' combs are said to curve out when viewed from the side, while pullets' combs stay smooth against their head until they're older. See the below picture for an example; the red lines are to help with visualizing the comb's shape.
Wing Shape Method
Likely another extension of the wing sexing method, or possibly of the wing split method, the wing shape method states that you can identify chicks by the shape of their wings at 1-2 weeks old, or once their wing feathers have come in enough. When wings are spread out, pullets are said to have a bumped shape, almost as if the wing has two distinct sections, while cockerels do not. I'll add picture examples as soon as possible!
Head Tap Method
Similar to the Tail Tap method, this method states that vocalizations differ between male and female chicks when tapped lightly on the head. Males are said to chirp loudly and sharply, while females are silent or "whistle sweetly".
Air Cell Method
According to this method, eggs whose air cell is centered in the large end of the egg will hatch male chicks, while eggs whose air cell is to the side will hatch female chicks.
Tail Shape Method
I believe this one was conceived by someone confused about when sexually dimorphic feathering comes in, but according to them, male chicks grow in tail feathers that are pointed and female chicks grow in tail feathers that are rounded at the tip.
Toe Thickness Method
This method states that, when compared to one another, male chicks will have thicker middle toes than female chicks of the same age.
Pick-Up Method I
According to this method, when a chick is picked up around its body from above and its feet are allowed to dangle, a female will pull its feet up and a male will just let its feet dangle.
RETIRED as of the end of the 2018 chick season - I believe I may have misinterpreted this test, as literally every chick I've tested has had the same result. I am modifying this test for future chick seasons. Please see the Pick Up II method in the 2019 new methods section.
Results
You can view all of the raw data and results on this Google Spreadsheet (this doesn't work very well on mobile and is best viewed on a computer; apologies for any inconvenience). There are tabs at the bottom to switch between results by test and results by chick. Please note that I will not add any chick's results to the 'results by test' tab on the spreadsheet OR to the below graphs until their sex is confirmed! I will, however, put them in the 'results by chick' section in the spreadsheet as a means of recording the data until the results can be confirmed.
The spread of male, female, and inconclusive predictions by test for straight run chicks. At a minimum, 15 chicks were tested in each method, and at maximum, there were 75 chicks tested. On the right is the actual ratio of males and females so far.
The accuracy of each test on straight-run chicks is depicted in below graph showing the percentage of correct predictions by test. To emphasize results, faint gray lines have been added to show which tests have fallen within 10% of the 50% correct line. Again, some tests were performed on more chicks than others, with a minimum of 15 and a maximum of 75 chicks so far.
The below graphs show the percentage of correct predictions made by each method, separated by breed. Only straight-run chicks are included in these graphs. When separated out by breed, more tests were able to achieve exactly or close to 100% accuracy. However, sample sizes are still small (as few as one single chicks in one case), so these results are not very strong evidence of anything yet.
Bantam Cochins - As many as 27 and as few as 5 chicks were tested for the percentages in the below graph.
Dorkings - As many as 10 and as few as 9 chicks were tested for the percentages in the below graph.
Marans - As many as 11 and as few as 1 chick was tested for the percentages in the below graph.
Easter-Eggers - As many as 5 and as few as 3 chicks were tested for the percentages in the below graph.
Plymouth Rock Bantams - A total of 6 chicks were tested for the percentages in the below graph.
The below graphs show the spread of male, female, and inconclusive predictions for sexed chicks, as well as the percentage of correct predictions on sexed chicks. As many as 15 and as few as 4 chicks have been tested for these graphs, so these results should not be considered strong evidence of anything at this point.
Discussion
None of the currently in-use tests have had uniform reactions in all chicks they were performed on. This is important to note because it eliminates the possibility of any of these reactions to any of the tests just being what chicks do in response to that specific type of stimulus.
Inconclusive predictions occur in seven of the twenty tests; essentially, the chicks responded in an unexpected way, or in a way that did not align with what that test says responses should be. In most cases, this is just a few chicks who, over the course of testing a group, happen to respond differently to the same test when erroneously performed on them a second time.
This is the case for the inconclusive chicks in the Tail Tap, Tail Pull, and Pick Up tests. This could be an indicator that, should these tests be performed repeatedly on the same chicks, their response might vary from day to day, or moment to moment. However, the number of chicks that were erroneously tested a second time and responded the same way was not recorded, so it’s also possible that these inconclusive chicks are merely outliers.
Inconclusive chicks in the Comb Length test are entirely a result of an unpracticed eye in the first year of using this test; excluding that year, no other years had inconclusive results in that test. When ignoring those inconclusive tests, the accuracy of this test rises from about 46.7% to 50.7%, making it slightly more accurate, but still firmly at the 50-50 mark for correct predictions.
The test with the most inconclusive predictions is the Leg Stretch test. This is because the test accounts for chicks who stretch their legs out and chicks who pull their legs in but does not account for chicks who keep one leg pulled in and stretch the other leg out. As it is, the test makes predictions at a rate of about 42.9% male and 38.6% female, with the remaining approximately 18.6% predictions being inconclusive one-in-one-out chicks.
Some say that chicks should be considered male if even one of their legs is stretched out. If we were to consider this to be the case, then the percentages would instead be about 61.4% male and 38.6% female predictions. This would change its accuracy from only 38.6% correct to 51.4% correct predictions, putting it close to a 50-50 shot of accurately predicting the sex of a chick, as is expected from these tests.
Only six of the twenty tests fall outside of the markers for 50 ± 10% on the graph for percent correct predictions by test. Of those six tests, four are the newest tests added to the roster and as such are the four tests that have been performed on the fewest chicks. Because of this, it is hard to say if these tests are truly distant from that expected 50% mark, or if it’s simply a matter of not enough data having been collected yet.
That said, both the Lay on Back and Leg Stretch tests also fall outside of those marks and have been performed on 75 and 70 chicks, respectively.
The most accurate test according to the percent correct predictions graph is the Comb Shape test, accurately predicting 19 of the 22 straight run chicks it has been performed on, or about 86.4% of straight run chicks. The percent correct prediction graphs that are split by breed seem to indicate that this test is less accurate on slow-to-mature breeds like Orpingtons, while more accurate on fast-to-mature breeds like Old English Game bantams.
This likely means that breed is a factor in the accuracy of this test; however, sample sizes are still small breed by breed, so it’s hard to come to strong conclusions based on that.
Knowing the sex of the chicks beforehand does not seem to sway the results of each test by much if the graphs for sexed chicks are any indication. The numbers of sexed chicks tested thus far remain relatively small, only 15 at the most, and so percentages of predictions and the accuracy of them could change by quite a bit by the time those numbers are closer to that of the unsexed chicks in the other tests.
In conclusion, as one might expect from these old wives’ tale sexing methods, most have turned out to be about as accurate as a coin flip, with few exceptions. As more data is added annually, it is my sincere hope that these tests will continue to be proven ineffective, or continue to show their potential as early chick sexing methods for others who, like me, do not have the training or nerve to vent sex chicks as hatcheries do.
.
