How to vent sex a slow-to-mature cochin youngster

[kristenm1975]

I have no idea if this is even the right place to post this, but I was a bit stumped so here it is!

I was given two pretty blue cochins in September, when they were about two months old. I'm pretty sure one is laying, since the other birds in the pen are all older and have been producing regular size eggs for some time now. The other one is developing slightly larger combs and wattles and I'm suspecting she is a he.

Last night I found this sexually ambiguous cochin in one of the nest boxes, when usually all the chickens roost together on the bars provided for that. There was a runny poo stuck in the down feathers on the backside, and I lifted the feathers to see if there was any injury and got a very good view of the vent. When it flexed (as I'm told happens all the time with chickens for no apparent reason) I could see inside the vent and there were two small bumps on the lower half of the circle of the vent. Nothing looked red or swollen or injured, so I'm assuming that's the chickens normal anatomy. Does this sound like a hen, or is this one a roo? Or can a person even tell by looking there?

thanks!

 

[JennsPeeps]

I'd google "chicken vent sexing" (careful about doing it from work!!) and see what you find.

 

[kristenm1975]

Hahahahaha...careful checking from work!

Yeah, you're right about that! I'll never forget the time I tried to check the Seattle Public Library site and put in either a .com or a .net (whichever it was, it was incorrect apparently) and got sent to an Asian porn site that opened up about a dozen windows, none of which would close!

It was my first week on the job as a receptionist, and I was VERY embarrassed to have to ask for help ridding my computer of the garbage. Never tried that again!

I did look up the chicken vent sexing online (at home, wisely) last night and didn't get much out of it. It seems like it's mostly devoted to info about chick vent sexing, rather than with juveniles.

Thanks though!

 

[kristenm1975]

Anybody? Hate to sell a pretty little hen if that's what I've got, but I promised my poor insomniac fiance that I'd never have another roo and would hate to break my promise so fast. (But darn, those blue cochin roosters are gorgeous, and so peaceful too!)

 

[cmom]

Vent sexing is done on newly hatched chicks.

Check this site out. It will explain vent sexing.

 

[rodriguezpoultry]

Can you post photos of them? By now it will be MUCH easier to sex the bird by photos than it is to vent sex.

The two little bumps you're referring to are the pubic bones of the bird. Males and females have pubic bones, but the females will be further apart than the males.

 

[al6517]

I was under the impression that this is only to be done with newborn chicks, I have never heard of it being done with any success on older birds.

AL