Can you tell by the feathers...

[Billyj]

if you have a boy or a girl? I read, heard, someone told me once but I can't remember that you can sex a chick by the number of rows of feathers on the wing. I checked my 3 day old chicks and did see a difference. Some had 2 rows and some only had 1. If I can remember... 2 rows=girls, and 1 row=boys. I know you can't tell on all chicks, but am I in the right direction? Any help would be nice. If this is true, I have 4 boys and 3 girls. And sorry, I don't know the type of chicken. All I know is that the hens were red and the roo was white, and all 7 chicks are yellow. Thanks

 

[pdsavage]

requires that the chickens be specially bred to manifest their sex in differences in the feathers as hatchlings. These are usually hybrids rather than true breeds.
Female chickens in these breeds have longer wing pinfeathers than the males do, which makes them relatively easy to tell apart. Most chickens do not have these traits bred into them, and the hatchlings are identical to all but the skilled eye of the professional chicken sexer.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chick_sexing

 

[Billyj]

Ok I went out again and checked one more time. See if you can understans this..



____________________ _____________________ back of wing

uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu All have this row of feathers

UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU Some have this row (considerably longer)





Boys? Girls? And yes they are hybrids

 

[pdsavage]

There is no way to realy tell,you can make a guess but unless the roo is a slow feather type.Then all pullets would have longer feathers.

http://www.howtodothings.com/pets-and-animals/a3887-how-to-determine-the-sex-of-baby-chickens.html
"The sex of the chicks produced from this cross can be determined during the first 48 hours after hatching by looking at the primary and secondary feathers located on the chick's wings. The primary feathers will be noticeably longer than the secondary feathers on a female chick. On a male, the primary and secondary feathers are the same length."