First 6 chicks "reds" "pullets" last Thursday and they are all doing really well. Getting 6 more this Thursday. Ran into someone I know today. She has about 30 hens and she told me pullets guarantee nothing and that I am sure to have a rooster or two. Is this accurate? Really wanted all hens. If we do have a rooster, what do you do with them? Can you give them away? I hear stories that are not an option for us with an 8 year old girl. How and when can you tell if they are a roo or a hen? Thank you! I thought buying pullets we were safe.
most hatcheries have a 95-98% accuracy. I personally have bought pullets from a feed store and none of them turned into roosters. Sometimes people let their kids handle the chicks when in the store and they don't always go back to the same brooder in which they came from so it is possible but not likely to get roosters as most pullets have wing bands on them, thus marking them as pullets in case they get mixed in with straight run chickens of the same breed during shipping. Hope this helps!
The fact is sexing chickens is a tough job. The reproductive organs are very small on baby chicks and telling them apart takes a keen eye. Add to this the fact that large hatcheries sort 50,000-100,000 chicks a day during this time of year, and you are certain to have misidentified chicks. That being said usually no more than 5 out of every batch of 100 "pullets" are actually male. So yes, it is possible that you will end up with a cockerel, or maybe even 2 or 3 depending on your luck (or lack thereof), but I wouldn't stress about it. If it turns out you have a cockerel, list him on Craigslist "Free to Good Home" and he'll be gone within days.
If you truly can't deal with an accidental rooster, get sexlinks from a feed store and avoid the one "different" chick if there is one. Oh, and I had one whoops cockerel in a batch of 14. That's pretty typical.
