Cochin Thread!!!

[wickedhens]

I think Cochins are the easiet To sex my Roos always get a comb formed at about 4 and 5 weeks of age and the hens always keep small combs sometimes not even visible I have used this method to sex all of them and it has great success especially if you have 2 or more the same age for comparison

Here is my Cochins Minerva and Static they are about 5 months and you can really see the difference between their combs and waddles they have been like this since they were about 5 weeks only difference from now and then is statics comb has gotten more large and red

Then there is my whites Frost & Elsa at 3 months and James and Tink at 5 weeks

 

[delder2009]

I do the wing sexing when they are a couple hours old. Pullet's have little quill like points on the edge of the wings. Were cockerels is just fluff. So far I have had 100% accuracy. With it

 

[Sylviaanne]

Are these differences true? If my babies are roosters I'm in trouble!

How old can you tell?

Would this chart be pretty close to any chick breed? Thanks, Sylvia

 

[Sylviaanne]

I do the wing sexing when they are a couple hours old. Pullet's have little quill like points on the edge of the wings. Were cockerels is just fluff. So far I have had 100% accuracy. With it

Also, could this work on other breeds of chickens? I have 4 new mix babies since last night. I am going to see if this might work on them. Thanks, Sylvia

 

[delder2009]

It will work with other breeds but I'm not sure if it work's on all breeds.it sould be done in the first 48 hours. The sooner the better. I have seen a nother way that is supposed to work on all chicks. Pick the chick up and hold it kinda by the head/neck and let it dangle if the legs just dangle straight pullet(female) if the chick picks up it's legs cockerels (male). I haven't tried this method. YouTube has a video on wing sexing. I can't find the link right now. But it will show you good pics of what each should look like.

 

[CCCCCCCCHICKENS]

It will work with other breeds but I'm not sure if it work's on all breeds.it sould be done in the first 48 hours. The sooner the better. I have seen a nother way that is supposed to work on all chicks. Pick the chick up and hold it kinda by the head/neck and let it dangle if the legs just dangle straight pullet(female) if the chick picks up it's legs cockerels (male). I haven't tried this method. YouTube has a video on wing sexing. I can't find the link right now. But it will show you good pics of what each should look like.

The head thing is an old wives tale. It has proved inaccurate everytime I have tried it.

 

[Sylviaanne]

It will work with other breeds but I'm not sure if it work's on all breeds.it sould be done in the first 48 hours. The sooner the better. I have seen a nother way that is supposed to work on all chicks. Pick the chick up and hold it kinda by the head/neck and let it dangle if the legs just dangle straight pullet(female) if the chick picks up it's legs cockerels (male). I haven't tried this method. YouTube has a video on wing sexing. I can't find the link right now. But it will show you good pics of what each should look like.

LOL I don't know if I can dangle them by their necks. It scares me. When I buy chicks from Alan (Heartland) he just grabs them up any old way. I don't react but it freaks me out. It looks like their little necks would snap. All the chicks I have ever gotten from him are healthy and physically fine but it sure looks scary. One of my almost 2 week old chicks got out of it's brooder yesterday and jumped off the table. Scared me to death but it got up and kept running. When I caught it, I caught it awkwardly and against the table leg. I was scared I broke it's neck but it's fine. They must be much more hardy than I think. Sylvia

 

[delder2009]

The head thing is an old wives tale. It has proved inaccurate everytime I have tried it.

good to know. I haven't tried it so I didn't know.

 

[Sylviaanne]

It will work with other breeds but I'm not sure if it work's on all breeds.it sould be done in the first 48 hours. The sooner the better. I have seen a nother way that is supposed to work on all chicks. Pick the chick up and hold it kinda by the head/neck and let it dangle if the legs just dangle straight pullet(female) if the chick picks up it's legs cockerels (male). I haven't tried this method. YouTube has a video on wing sexing. I can't find the link right now. But it will show you good pics of what each should look like.

I went and checked the wings. 2 of my chicks are fluffy and 2 are still kind of sticky/stiff. 3 of them look like pullets and one has the fluffy wings as best I can tell with the wing still sticky/stiff. One more just came out of the shell so I don't know about it yet. Thanks, I have written this down to see if it is accurate for mixes. Sylvia

 

[Sylviaanne]

It will work with other breeds but I'm not sure if it work's on all breeds.it sould be done in the first 48 hours. The sooner the better. I have seen a nother way that is supposed to work on all chicks. Pick the chick up and hold it kinda by the head/neck and let it dangle if the legs just dangle straight pullet(female) if the chick picks up it's legs cockerels (male). I haven't tried this method. YouTube has a video on wing sexing. I can't find the link right now. But it will show you good pics of what each should look like.

Pulling up the legs or legs dangling sounds like another way that is spoken of, lay them on their backs and if the legs go straight, means one sex and if it pulls it's legs up, the other sex. Also, if they struggle while laying on their backs is supposed to mean one sex and if it lays calmly, it means the other sex.

I used the golden ring to sex some chicks and even if you consider you have a 50/50 chance of being right, it seemed to identify pullets easier than cockerels. I have chicks with pink bands on their legs that are beginning to look very boyish. I have fewer blue banded chicks that look girlish. I'd love to find a way to KNOW early on which are boys and which are girls so I know how many I have to rehome or dispatch in some way.