Do people buy/sell unsexed chickens at several weeks of age?

[GerbilsOnToast]

I am puzzled; and I assume it's a background thing; I would ask that someone enlighten me.

I've never bought anything but 'day-old' chicks, which, for standard breeds, are very easy to sex. I generally separate straight runs into separate brooders, so that if I sell any, I know which they are. I see here a list of requests for help determining the sex of young adolescent birds, and not many are exotics. Were these birds purchased as young adolescents without knowing the sex? Or, were they not examined by the purchaser when they were hatchlings? Perhaps, in 'backyard' scale chickens, sex doesn't matter to owners as much? Could someone please explain this to me?

 

[Nsampsel]

Sometimes hatcheries don't give you a list of included breeds when you order one of their "assortments." Other times people receive chicks from others who have decided they didn't want them or have bought chicks or partially grown birds from someone who had multiple breeds available. Also, if you buy chicks from a farm supply store, such as Tractor Supply, the birds are often not labeled with anything more than "pullet" to tell you what they are. Others are chicks hatched in your own coops or incubators & you just aren't sure of the gender or how to sex them yourself.

Also, these same circumstances lead to not knowing the gender of the birds. Even birds that have been sexed prior to sale (excluding chicks that are colored differently by gender at hatch) have only an 80-90% accuracy guarantee. Therefore, there is always some chance of getting a roo when you wanted a hen & vice versa.

 

[Fred's Hens]

Lots of newer folks just buy their chicks from a TSC or other local feed store where the chicks are in bins. For a host of reasons, the sexing on those chicks is suspect at best. Others are busy hatching out eggs and the chicks are unsexed. Some breeds are quite difficult to sex at hatch, without vent sexing, which is an acquired skill and quite rare in the general public. To be useful, even feather sexing requires the breeding strains to posses that trait.

But even those who buy chicks supposedly sexed at the hatcheries still find a 10-15% "error" rate to be common.

To just state the obvious, the reality is that many, many folks do not know, for a certainty, the sex of the chicks they now own. But, time always brings the answer.

 

[GerbilsOnToast]

Thank you both for responding; I understand now. (TSC says it all, lol)

 

[donrae]

How are standard breed day old chicks easy to sex?

 

[GerbilsOnToast]

Wing feathers. Gently grasp the tip of the wing and extend it; examine the feathers of the final section. Pullets of standard breeds hatch with two rows of feathers formed and extending; Cockerels have a single row, which may or may not be extending from the sheath (sometimes they just look like long nubs, no fuzzy bits yet).

After you go through a few, you'll start to notice the pullets in the group before you pick them up - the feather edges of their wings are more visible - males will either be not visible (nubs/ pin feathers), or noticeably narrower. This is only valid up to three days of age, but it's how hatcheries do it with standard breeds, and when you don't have to get through 400 birds an hour, it's very accurate. I haven't called one wrong yet!

Post edited to add second paragraph