How do I sex a chick?

[blueshirt8876]

In May, I will be getting 8 Buff Orpingtons from Farm and Fleet, but I'm not so sure that the store has accurate sexing and I want to check for myself. But first, how do you sex baby chicks?

 

[SelfAsylum]

I'm quite new to this so I'm unsure, but I have been looking it up lately a lot. The most I've gotten out of it it venting or feathering. Supposedly females have 4 rows of feathers and males 2. I could never verify for sure which stage to determine this at. Also that males are more long feathers and females short and long? With vent sexing droppings are squeezed out of the chicks to expose the anal area, where males have a bump and females don't (though some females have small ones). I haven't tried this on my chicks because I don't know what I'm doing and I don't want to hurt them. They say it works best within the first day or two of hatching. I've seen another way to identify too around the site, and was told for my red pullets as well. With blonde chicks that are supposed to be of red or gold origin (not positive on the range or varieties this works on) the females are darker and have the distinctive two dark lines on their backs, while males lack them or are really light blonde. This is all I've gathered for my new knowledge.

Hope this helps!

 

[hdowden]

sex-links can be determined by color at hatch but yours wont be sex linked. feather sexing can only be used in those breeds breed for it. vent sexing if done wrong may harm or even kill the chick. best bet is to wait for the chick to reach 6 weeks of age by then you should be able to tell the gender on the buff orpingtons

 

[Coop Deville]

Especially with certain breeds (like the Polish), there is a substantial uncertainty about gender at birth. Others are born with traits that make it easy to determine gender (unfortunately, not the Buff Orpington). Like hdowden said, sometimes you just have to wait! You can ask the hatchery how your birds are sexed, but no method is foolproof.

 

[Nicole01]

Good luck and I hope you get all hens. However, nothing is 100% and it's best to come up with a plan in case you do happen to get a rooster. Either rehome or eat the boys/s. Chicks are either vent or feather sexed. Skilled professionals vent sex the chick. It's a rough wait.

Hatcheries are usually a 80-90% success rate. I've heard free range chicken is very good! I don't know if you are able to go down that road, but you can always put an add on Craigslist for a free rooster. I doubt you'll get any money for them.

I picked one boy and now I think I picked two out of 3 this time around. My light brahma has a thick comb and feathering weird. We decided to keep this chick regardless of sex, which took a lot of convincing my husband. We'll see though, hopefully my LB is a hen.

 

[ggrap]

If Farm and Fleet is a feed store then they are probably hatchery birds. Most hatcheries guarantee 90-95% accuracy.