- Jan 1, 2015
- 161
- 2
- 68
I hatched chicks I need help can tell what gender day olds are it has to be possible the hatcheries do it so pls help of you know how pls post
Follow along with the video below to see how to install our site as a web app on your home screen.
Note: This feature may not be available in some browsers.
Thanks I will look at the sex link breed
x2 on this.Hatcheries do it several ways. Some chicks are sex linked, meaning the males and females hatch different colors from each other. This is 100% accurate and anyone can do it. Some chicks are sex linked for feather growth so the feathers on day old chicks grow in differently and you can tell a male from a female by looking at the feather growth on their wings. This, again, is 100% accurate but as with the sex linking has to be bred for specifically and only works with those certain chicks. The technique that works on all chicks is vent sexing, where a trained person looks in the chicks' vents for the differences between males and females. This is only 90% accurate, and that's when performed by experts. This is dangerous for the chick when performed by a person who does not know what they are doing because the chick is easily injured or even killed with improper handling, and really this should only be attempted if you have someone who can teach you, like a vet or an expert, or if you are willing to take the chance that you might injure or kill the chick and understand that you're not going to be very accurate with it at first.
There are also some breeds, like barred rocks and welsummers, where the females look slightly different than males at hatch and these differences can be used to fairly accurately sex the chicks, but this is not 100% like sex links are. Then there are also autosexing breeds such as cream legbars where males and females always hatch looking differently, and this is 100% accurate as it is with sex linked chicks.
If you want to be sure you're getting females and that the chicks can be sexed accurately and easily, sex links are the way to go.