How To Tell Males From Females?

[milezone]

Hi Everyone,

So excited we received our first chicks today. (photos later). I was going to split the order with another person, but now I do not know which are the 2 males, versus the other 23 females? What should I do? I did not think to ask McMurray to mark them for us.

Russ

 

[dsqard]

What kind of chicks are you getting and are the roo's "packing peanuts" for heat or did you order them?

 

[<3ChickenForever]

Check the spurs on them. I know it's kinda early, but if the spur is just a little dot it'll probably be a rooster.

 

[BobwhiteQuailLover]

<3ChickenForever :

Check the spurs on them. I know it's kinda early, but if the spur is just a little dot it'll probably be a rooster.

Hens AND roos will have spur bumps.​

 

[Robo]

Yes, but sometimes that works. The only way to know without some guess work is to vent sex. If you do this be careful, it can kill the chick if done wrong...

 

[PotterWatch]

I think the only thing to do at this point (assuming they are all the same breed and look the same), is to split them up and in several weeks when you have a better idea of who is who, switch birds if need be.

 

[<3ChickenForever]

Yes, all chickens have spurs, but the rooster have longer spurs and will show spurs at an earlier age.

 

[Robo]

All chickens have the spur bumps, but only roosters have spurs that come way out.

 

[milezone]

Thanks guys for the help. What does Vent mean?

Russ

 

[Sunny Side Up]

These are day-old chicks. There's really no way to tell now unless you're a trained professional vent-sexer. Did you & your pal plan to divide the females and each of you have one male? You're just going to have to divide them at random and wait until it becomes more evident which ones are the males. Depending on the breed you may be able to tell in just a few weeks, when the males' little combs begin to grow larger & get redder than the females'. Some breeds don't show secondary sex characteristics for several weeks, even a month or two.

Be patient & accommodating, eventually you'll be able to tell and you can swap birds then. Now you know for future orders that you can ask to have your chicks marked. McMurray is very helpful with this. I've placed group orders with them and they'll mark all the chicks with a color code for each person in the group.