Does this work?

[IceStorm]

Saw this image, does this actually work? Has anyone found this true?

 

[redinator]

From what I understand it only works on certain breeds that have a 'fast feathering' gene. Maybe someone else will have a better explanation

 

[FunClucks]

You can breed a flock of birds in a certain way that the males feather out one way, and the females feather out another way (one is fast, one is slow, I forget which). But in order to get there, you have to first remove from your breeding population all the males and females with the wrong type of feathering gene. So you would need 1-2 generations or more of chicks that are culled to produce fast/slow feathering of the correct gender. And then going forwards you could use this method. But most commercial flocks are not bred this way, all the genes are mixed up together. Unless the flock owner specifically breeds for males and females to have separate feathering speeds, this method will not be accurate on the resulting chicks.

In short, the answer you are looking for is "Usually not."

 

[GoosesGeeses]

for me an accurate way to tell is within the first 2 days, the pullets always have more or bigger or longer feathers, the males may have none or very small ones

 

[MROO]

Just for fun, we've been playing with that theory for years, and have found that, at least with bantams, the method works about 50% of the time. So ... NOPE!

 

[jwcarlson]

I, too, have a method for sexing chicks that is 50% accurate.

 

[MROO]

I, too, have a method for sexing chicks that is 50% accurate.

Coin toss, maybe? We used that one, too - with even less success than the wing feathers. But hey, it was fun!

 

[debid]

If you have hatchery chicks that were bred for wing sexing, then yes. It's like color sexlinking, though, where they have two breeding pens creating the parent stock and another pen where they put their fast feathering males with their slow feathering females to make wing sexable offspring. The offspring will be fast feathering females and slower feathering males which means the trick cannot be repeated using these offspring. I believe Amberlinks are wing sexed but I don't know of any others.

 

[IceStorm]

Thank you for all of the replies! The only reason I was curious is in our current neighborhood we're technically not allowed to have roosters (past 9 months old) and I'll be so sad if I bond with these babies and they're roos
Guess I'll just have to wait and see!

 

[debid]

Thank you for all of the replies! The only reason I was curious is in our current neighborhood we're technically not allowed to have roosters (past 9 months old) and I'll be so sad if I bond with these babies and they're roos
Guess I'll just have to wait and see!

If a whoops cockerel is that upsetting, you should choose sexlinks. The odds of a mistake with them are near zero.