Sexing for a Rooster

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Mattemma

Mattemma

Crowing
10 Years
Aug 12, 2009
5,314
103
291
We want to get a rooster.If we get a chick from straight run is there anyway to tell if it is a roo?

Last year we bought sexed chick hens from TSC,and all 6 were girls.I only want 3 more hens and a roo,but the local store requires you get 6 chicks at a time,so I will get 4 sexed hens and 2 straight run. I am worried we will end up with 2 extra hens.One is fine but we really want a roo so I figured get 2 straight run to increase our chances.

Anything we can look for in the chick to tell if it is a boy or girl?
 
I don't know of any way to tell if a chick is male or female with any reliability unless it is sexlinked. Tractor Supply is not likely to have male sex links. Not many people want them.

With that said, with the barred rocks and maybe barred in general, not sure about that, the males tend to be not as dark as the females. It is not absolutely reliable and you may need a trained eye to see the differnence, but if you can recognize a barred chick in the mixed group, you might try to pick a lighter one.

For true straight run, here are the odds of male-female for a few different combinations. Maybe it will help you make your decision. And to help add to your confusion and make your decision harder, I got seven straight run Buff Orps and got seven pullets. I also got 6 straight run Speckled Sussex and got four male and two female. It is odds, not guarantees.

1 chick

1 male 0 female - 1 in 2 or 50%
0 male 1 female - 1 in 2 or 50%

2 chicks

2 male 0 female - 1 in 4 or 25%
1 male 1 female - 2 in 4 or 50%
0 male 2 female - 1 in 4 or 25%


3 chicks

3 male 0 female - 1 in 8 or 12.5%
2 male 1 female - 3 in 8 or 37.5%
1 male 2 female - 3 in 8 or 37.5%
0 male 3 female - 1 in 8 or 12.5%

4 chicks

4 male 0 female - 1 in 16 or 6.3%
3 male 1 female - 4 in 16 or 25.0%
2 male 2 female - 6 in 16 or 37.5%
1 male 3 female - 4 in 16 or 25%
0 male 4 female - 1 in 16 or 6.3%


5 chicks

5 male 0 female - 1 in 32 or 3.1%
4 male 1 female - 5 in 16 or 15.6%
3 male 2 female - 10 in 16 or 31.3%
2 male 3 female - 10 in 16 or 31.3%
1 male 4 female - 5 in 16 or 15.6%
0 male 5 female - 1 in 16 or 3.1%


6 chicks

6 male 0 female - 1 in 64 or 1.6%
5 male 1 female - 6 in 64 or 9.4%
4 male 2 female - 15 in 64 or 23.4%
3 male 3 female - 20 in 64 or 31.3%
2 male 4 female - 15 in 64 or 23.4%
1 male 5 female - 6 in 64 or 9.4%
0 male 6 female - 1 in 64 or 1.6%
 
Why don't you wait until others have raised up chicks and find out they have an unwanted rooster. People are desperate to find homes for roosters that they have hand-raised. They just can't bear to kill them. At about six weeks, they start realizing that they have an extra rooster in their henhouse. Perfect for you!
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Well, I`m gonna vote for a mature rooster. One that is older than a year. Several reasons for this. A mature cock will look like he`s gonna look, so you see what you`re actually getting. He will take command of your grown hens and they won`t give him a hard time like they would a youngster. If he has contact with the new youngsters, he will not harm them, as the other mature hens will be a problem when introducing the youngsters to the flock later on. Right away, you can tell his temperment and you won`t be taking a chance on a young roo going bad. If you put a note on the bulletin board at the feed store, or on Craigs list, or even Freecycle, your chances of getting just what you want are pretty good. Be sure to quarrentine him for 3-4 weeks to be sure he`s not bringing some unseen problem to your flock. Good luck........Pop
 
Where are you located, Mattemma? I've got several roosters I hatched in November and I'd gladly give one or more (or all!
lol.png
) to you if you're near me.
 
Quote:
Thanks for this post, it's tremendously helpful and very interesting (particularly to the statistics-phobics like me!).
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