Have you ever gotten roosters when ordering female chicks?

[cpowers_21]

I'm curious how common this is.

I am ordering from a hatchery that only sells in sets of ten. I'd like no more than 9 hens and a single rooster. Given how they only sell in sets of ten I'm pretty much limited to only buying 10 sexed chicks and forgoing a rooster.

They have a supposed 90 percent sex guarantee. I'm interested in how accurate this is. I was wondering how likely it is that I'll end up with a rooster if I order 10 sexed chicks.

 

[Tookie]

I ordered 7 chicks from Ideal Poultry, 3 Easter Eggers, 2 Dominiques, and 2 Welsummers. All of them were supposed to be pullets, well 1 EE and 1 Welsummer ended up being cockerels.

 

[pekin queen]

i dont really ever order chicks other then the yearly batch of laying hens but i have seen it happen so often on BYC

 

[nuthatched]

There's about a %10 margin of error, some hatcheries are better at sexing than others. I've ordered many times, never had extra cockerels.

 

[MACCanadianCoop]

Unless they are sex linked, there is no guarantee of gender.

Question: if you want 9 pullets and 1 covered, why not just order 9 pullets and 1 cockerel?

 

[Alagirl]

Unless they are sex linked, there is no guarantee of gender.

Question: if you want 9 pullets and 1 covered, why not just order 9 pullets and 1 cockerel?

I think the hatchery does not offer the split.

 

[MACCanadianCoop]

I think the hatchery does not offer the split.

You should ask. most hatcheries seem quite happy to sell cockerels because they are harder to sell

 

[MysteryChicken]

Yes, twice from Meyer's, but I'm not upset. There's always that small chance for error.

 

[Battlepants]

Of the total of 13 chicks that I purchased (2 different places), I got one roo.

As for getting a roo for your flock, check craigslist, facebook or the rehoming section of this forum. People always tend to end up with extra roos that they don't want to dispatch, so they are more than happy to give them away to a good home.

 

[cpowers_21]

Unless they are sex linked, there is no guarantee of gender.

Question: if you want 9 pullets and 1 covered, why not just order 9 pullets and 1 cockerel?

I'm ordering from Hoover's and they require a minimum of 5 chicks of any of their options, i.e. I can't order a single rooster.