Feather sexing?

[sophiejw]

Hello,
I've got a lovely group of 7 new chicks. I thought I'd have a go at feather sexing them when they were a day old, I'd read that ones with longer feathers at a day old were female. Doing this, I think I have 5 girls and 2 boys. The chicks are australorps, polish crested and a rhode island x orpington. I just wondered if anyone else has done this and if the results turned out to be right.
Thanks
Sophie

 

[LarryPQ]

Feather sexing is only reliable when sexing chick that are bred to be feather sexed. I don't think any of the breedsyou listed have the "right" genes...except maybe for the RIR/BO cross. It will be interesting to see though! Mark your suspected roos (dot on the head) and lets wait & see!

 

[sophiejw]

Thanks for that

I thought the RIR x was a girl so that's good, I hope it is so it will lay lots of nice big eggs (that's the plan anyway!).

I think both the Polish are girls, so easy to know if right with them, and 2 each for the Australorps. Will be interesting, do you know which breeds are bred for this to work? Though I'm not sure I could bring myself to cull little chicks if I thought they were male so maybe best not to know for sure

 

[LarryPQ]

do you know which breeds are bred for this to work

You'll have to do a search on the "hows" to learn any more. Most hatcheries just call them "sex-links" and then name them something pretty, like Amberlinks, or black stars, etc. (However--I do think both amberlinks and blackstars are COLOR-sexed sexlinks, not feather sexed)​