feather sexing

[Elinor's chicks]

Has anyone here tried feather sexing their day-old chicks? How accurate were you? I've seen the photos - uneven feathers = pullet, even feathers = cockerel, and I watched a horrible YouTube video someone posted here about commercial hatcheries (not going to put myself through that again!

I think I read somewhere the breed I am hatching (Orpingtons) can be. (????)

 

[Griffin Nest]

a friend of mine who owns about a million chickens told me that at 2 weeks, the females will have tail feathers and the males wont. he said that this never fails and he always turns out corrct on the gender

 

[cmom]

Feather sexing isn't hard, but it requires that the chickens be bred to show their sex in differences in the feathers as chicks. Feather sexing in chicks that were bred with these traits also must be sexed within the first day or two to be accurate. Male chickens in these breeds have longer wing pinfeathers than the females do, which makes them relatively easy to tell apart. Most chickens do not have these traits bred into them, and the chicks are identical to all but the skilled eye.

 

[MuckyPuppy]

Quote:
I've also read/told this. The ones I read said that females will get their wing and tail feathers in the first week or so and the males will take longer. I hope this is right as 7 of 8 of my aprox. 8 day old chicks all have wing feathers (some of which are also starting tail feathers).

Only one of them has neither wing or tail feathers yet.

 

[NormansGal44]

a friend of mine who owns about a million chickens told me that at 2 weeks, the females will have tail feathers and the males wont. he said that this never fails and he always turns out corrct on the gender /img/smilies/smile.png

I had a Easter Egger (I know, a mutt ) pullet who didn't grow a tail until five months old. Before that she was tailless and I was wondering if some random Arucana gene was showing through... LOL!

 

[shardean]

I have 14 chicks 6-8 days old...all have wing and tail feathers started...some longer then others. And as great as it would be, can't believe all are hens!