fact or fiction....?

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Chickiemama1010

Chickiemama1010

Songster
10 Years
Jan 16, 2010
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Sullivan
I hope this is the right place to post this question....

I got a straight run of Black Aussies. Someone told me at the hatchery (a customer that was also waiting) I will be able to tell pullets from cockerels at 10-15 days old because the pullets will grow wing feathers much quicker than the cockerels, while the cockerels will grow breast and neck feathers much earlier than the pullets. I never even heard this suggestion before, and as far as I knew the only way to sex chicks that were that young was through vent sexing, otherwise you just had to wait 4-6wks or so to see if comb and waddles were developing. I can wait, but of course I want to know what I got. Just wondered if this was accurate info, or some old farmer pulling my chain or passing me an "urban" chicken legend.
 
Agree. Some breeds are feather sexed by speed of growth. Vent sexing is 90% average from hatcheries. I'm not sure if in some or all breeds but primary feathers are two different lengths in females and one length in males. You could google it or look for it on youtube.
 
Tadkerson talks about feather sexing at the bottom of the first post in this lnk. From what I read, it needs to be one of a specific cross to use this accurately. I think Pop is right that there were a few specific breeds that this worked without them being crosses. Not sure which ones those are, however. I think if it were true in general, the hatcheries would use feather sexing instead of vent sexing. That is newborn chicks, of course. At a couple of weeks, it may be more reliable???

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=261208
 
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these babies are not crosses or hybrids. They are all black australorps. Dont know if that matters...But i was looking at them last night, and I see some that are starting to grow actual tail feathers (or the nubs that will become them) and some that are still just fuzzy butts - no nub. Also some of them have wing feathers that are starting to "unfold" for lack of a better term. The feathery fluff is coming out of the spiny stick of the feather. Some are all fanned out and some are still pretty compact. Not sure if that means anything, but there seems to be 2 different feather-growth speeds going on here in the mix of them. I guess I just have to wait and see, but it sure is hard.
 
Is there some way you could mark them now so you can tell which are which when you can sex them? Maybe a few photos taken now showing the difference could make a real interesting and informative post in a few months.
 
i thought of that. I dont have leg bands on hand, but i thought of getting some just for experimentation purposes. Putting one color on the suspect girls and another color on the suspect boys and see if its correct or just random guessing...I have a hard time just telling them apart as it is, they mostly all look the same to me. Theres only a couple that have distinguishing characteristics. One has a solid black beak, one has a boo-boo spot on its shoulder, like a little itchy spot. One is visibly smaller than all the rest and one has a bald backside since i had to take the scissors to it b/c it kept getting pasty butt. the other 8....well they are all looking the same to me. My dig. camera broke, so pics are troublesome, but I have taken pics on my phone, if I can get clear ones and the little buggers will just hold still for 10secs.

But as mentioned before, there seems to be 2 rates of feather growth going on already. And they are only 5 days old....no real tail feathers, but nubs where they are coming. Its about 70%/30% ratio. If i base the presence of more feathering on the wings as the hens, I have 8 hens. And that would leave 4 roos. If that turns out to be accurate, I am happy! I can only keep one (EDIT: or possibly 2, lol) roos. I am up in the air about what to do with the adult roo I already have. he tends to be a jerk to people and since he hit puberty he always has been, but he is very good to his hens. I spent a bit of time trying to get him "reformed" since he was quite aggressive toward me and it worked to some extent. I still travel to the coop with a broom though. I feel like I shouldnt put up with a roo that is a hassle and has aggression and send one that is nicer but just cant stay due to room and board matters to the freezer. And I am keeping at least one of the Australorp roos since I want babies and prefer them to be true breeds and not GC/Aussie mutts. Someone said in a post a while back that there are not a lot of job openings for a roo, so theres no reason to keep one employed that isnt perfect for the job. I feel myself agreeing with that.....But now Im getting off topic.


I'll see about getting some leg bands this weekend and some photos too. And I guess that test will prove some of the truthfulness of the feather sexing theory.

EDIT AGAIN: can I paint their toenails with nailpolish? Is that safe? i could do that today....left toe for the girls and right toe for the boys? Or red polish on the girls and none on the boys...just a thought. I dont want to hurt them and IDK if its dangerous chemical issue, if it was just one little painted toenail...
 
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I've heard of people using nail polish. I think I'd prefer to use something other than red since they like to peck at red. However, I've seen posts where people use red nail polish without a problem. There should not be any chemical issues.
 
nail polish it is then...and yeah, i thought about pecking red, but wasnt going to edit a 3rd time! I have pink shades, purpleish, might even have something obscure like blue or green laying around. I'll try to get some toes painted and some pics taken and posted soon...

Thanks!!
 
Well, I cant get a good photo, so I give up at least for today. I am however going to call the wing feather sexing theory "FACT"

* I have 2 distinct and identifiable wing feather growth rates going on. The girls have long feathers and short feathers - 2 lengths. The cockerels have 1 length of much shorter and sparser feathers on their wings. I have 1 chick that is ambiguous, and I guess time will tell what s/he is. Smaller than all the rest so maybe s/he will catch up in due time.

* I was at TSC over the weekend and they had 5 bins of chicks there, mixed breeds. There were straight run bantams and straight run standards, then pullet bantams and pullet standards. And a bin of meaties. The non-meatie standards were bigger than my chicks, the sales lady said about 18days old. ALL the pullets had the longer and 2-length wing feathers, while the straight run bins had the long feathered birds and the short feathered birds. Even the bantams. There were all kinds of colors of chickies in the bins, but the wing thing seemed accurate.

A couple of older men came to look at the chicks, and wanted to get straight run prices, but were concerned about the chance of getting a heap of roos if they picked them strictly on color or size or easiest to catch. I told them about the wing feather theory. They looked closer to the marked pullets and were in agreement about it, and thought I was some kinda chicken genius (awwww shucks). I am by no means an expert, but I did feel good being able to show something to a couple old timers. I usually learn my best gardening and farming tricks from them, so it was nice to be able to return the favor. The men got a box of 20 long winged "straights" at the $1.89 per chick price and I think they felt like they secretly defeated TSC, as they were all sneaky and giggly filling the box with chicks they were carefully inspecting. The pullets were marked at $2.39/chick.

Thanks BYCers! I swear I learn something great here every day!
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