How To Sex A Chicken - Wisdom From An Old Timer

[RyanAndMeri]

Hey come on now, it beats vent checking! .. ask any chicken and they'll agree!

It seemed to work with the hens they had at the country store. I guess the next time I go there I'll test it on 20 pullets and 20 cockrels that have already been sexed and see what the consistancy rate is and if it changes from breed to breed.

 

[d.k]

*Maybe it only works on country chickees, city chickees being so cut off from their farm cousins and all & not knowin how they're s'posed to behave when snatched up by the scruff of the neck.

 

[blue90292]

when i sell my chicks at the swap, the hispanic people will pick up the chicks by their beaks. they told me, if the chicks squirm, they're male, if they just hang, they're female.

seems in all these wives tales, the pullets always just hang. at least that's one consistency....

 

[hypnofrogstevie]

lol. I rather just put a microscope next to the vent and say boy or girl lol

 

[d.k]

* poor fuzzy butts; I'd like to be able to pick me up some people by the beak!!! BTW, do roos even have a vent?? And if so, WHY?? (I've been trying to respect my chicken's privacy a.m.a.p.!) Oh, never mind-- I think I figured it out.

 

[RyanAndMeri]

I don't agree with picking them up by the beaks, that seems to put a lot of strain on their little necks. The scruff of the neck is loose skin and doesn't seem to hurt them. Compared with vent checking I think it's more gentle to the chicks....

"Vent sexing involves literally squeezing the feces out of the chick, which opens up the rectum (more properly, the cloaca) slightly, allowing the chicken sexer to see if the chick has a small "bump", which would indicate that the chick is a male. Some females have very small bumps, but rarely do they have the large bumps male chicks possess." - from Wikipedia.

 

[cheeptrick]

Vent and Feather sexing is how the hatcheries do it. But I'd like to know why they do not do a DNA test to confirm sex...it would definitely be full proof instead of an educated guess with Feather Sexing and Vent Sexing. Plus it would be 100%...no mistake!

 

[d.k]

*Too expensive-- and despite CSI dna stills takes bout 3 wks last I heard--- at that point you don't really have chicks anymore.

 

[silkiechicken]

DNA tests are expensive, expecially since most hatchery chicks are a few dollars. Maybe some day in the future they can mass produce microfluidics where a drop of chick blood could get the sex of a chick in a few minutes... but still too long vs "traditional" techniques they have now.

 

[banter]

That is amazing and I will try it! With my breed the the females are closer to the ground and rounder and the males stand more upright-rule of thumb only