How to tell the gender.

[kizza07]

Hey everyone!

Some help here would be really appreciated!

How do you guys tell the gender of a chicken?

Its just that I have a friend who wants me to tell her what gender her chickens are and I have no idea!

I know from agriculture at school that in the average chicken such as Rhode Island Red's, you outstretch their wing and look at the feathers. The males have the longest feathers.

I'm not too sure though!

She has a few Old English Game crossed with Belgiums.

She also has 2 silkies.

Its going to take forever to catch the OEGxB

What should i do? Stretch out the wing or is it different for these breeds?

I know that you can tell from pics.

What angles etc pics should i take.

But also from interest, HOW do you smart people tell???

Thank you in advance for any help that you can give me!

She is worse than me! lol promise!

But she doesnt have internet so can't join this, so I'm doing it fro her!

Thanks again
Kizza

 

[hcammack]

the feather sexing does not work on those breeds you should be able to tell from the comb size and the feathers or the roosters.

Hope that Helps
Henry

 

[MonkeyZero]

Look for in some breeds saddle and hackle feathers. If pointed, they tend to be males. Also look at the tail. If it starts to curl, it is male. THe comb and wattle is the most used ways. My aunt said something about turtning the chicken upside down and whoever moves the most is a male(i think thats what she said).

Sindoora

 

[Catalina]

If you're taking pics - try to show the whole chicken from one side, more from the back than the front.
You want to look for the hackle feathers on the back of the neck and the saddle feathers above their tail. Pointed = boys. Rounded = girls.
I think - experts correct me if I'm wrong!

 

[CovenantCreek]

Why don't you take a look at feathersite.com? You can probably find pics of all the breeds mentioned and get an idea of what the sexes look like in each. The crosses won't look exactly like either breed, but should resemble one or the other.

 

[Frozen Feathers]

Some Silkies are near impossible to sex until they are either crowing or laying eggs.
Other breeds have colors like Duckwings or BBRs that vary so much with the male and female you should be able to tell who's who by the time they are 6 weeks.

Other then that comb/wattle size, saddle and hackle feathers (pointed for a male, rounded for a female) spur bumps and even the shape of the bird can all be tell tale signs of male or female.

You can always just take pictures and post them.

We love pictures. Side views I think are the best.