How To Sex A Chicken - Wisdom From An Old Timer

[subhanalah]

I raise blue black splash English Orpingtons and have a method which has proven to be VERY reliable. At exactly one week old, I look at their fuzzy butts. The boys have nice rounded fuzzy butts still covered in down and the girls have tail feather spouts. I throw a pink or a blue zip tie around their feet and sure enough I am right about 90 to 95 % of the time. Once that one week mark passes, it is impossible to tell... At that point you need to wait for combs and wattles.

I've read that roos feather out faster than hens! Also, how do you prevent the zip tie from closing and cutting off the foot?

 

[kristin07035]

Ok so in 2 months I will be trying out my first attempt at hatching chicks.
Going in the bator are...
French Black Copper Marans,
Frizzled Olive Eggers,
Frizzled Easter Eggers,
Frizzled Tolbunt Polish,
Frizzled Bantam Seramas
Will I be able to sex any by their wing feathers?

 

[Hip lady]

This is an easy way to tell if you got male or female. I will have to try this on our chicks.

 

[tatertot]

You can tell by wing feather but only when their feathers start to come in after that u have to wait for saddle feathers

 

[keesmom]

You can tell by wing feather but only when their feathers start to come in after that u have to wait for saddle feathers

Feather sexing only works for certain breeds. If it worked for all then hatcheries would not need vent sexers or sex linked breeds.

 

[kristin07035]

Can you feather sex a serama (class b frizzle genes)

 

[crazychick1977]

I really got a kick out of reading everyone's thoughts on this thread and I've decided to do a little experiment with sexing my Pioneer chickens. Of course, their 8 weeks old now so I'm not sure how well it will work with babies...

I bought 8 straight run pioneers at TSC. The way they have acted, I assumed that I got all roosters. I can't bring myself to pick them up by the feet, neck, or beak (they're heavy little things for their age). I didn't even want to turn them all the way onto their backs, so as I was picking them up to put them into their outside playpen, I would hold them and tilt them till they were on their sides. I noticed that three of them stopped fussing and became still. After that I noticed that those three also had smaller combs than the others, so now I'm thinking maybe they ARE hens! The other ones fought the whole deal about being held sideways, and I'm pretty sure those are my roos.

When I later went to retrieve them I did that test again. When the same birds acted the same way I decided to put leg bands on them so I would be able to tell if that really worked. Like I said, they're 8 weeks old now- but the difference in the combs and feathers is almost non-existent.

Seems like it's a nicer way to guess than picking them up in a way that I might hurt them. I'm not really digging the thought of trying to vent sex either.

Oh, and I also did this with the two little Leghorn pullets that I got at the same time. They too immediately stopped moving and stayed calm.

 

[whotheflock]

I was told to put both hands around the chick hold to your ear and shake it, if it rattles it's a roo.

I have not tried it. But still looking for a way to check my chicks.

 

[babychicks7]

so happy i saw your post about sexing chicks just wish i had known 4 months ago we bought so chicks from our home town feed store. at 3 months what we thought was a hen started crowing. we had heard that sometimes a hen will crow, we kept watching for the spur on the back of the leg and at 4 months he still doesnt have the spur!

 

[keesmom]

Spurs don't show until they are close to a year of age.