I think I guessed wrong. Help me out?

[mermaid_of_the_farm]

I've recently learned the hard way, a skittish male is better than an aggressive one.

You don't want them fleeing for their lives at the sight of you, but you don't want to get too comfortable with them all up in your space either.

I am learning that most of my chicken problems are rooster related in some way. Sooner or later the day is coming where I have to solve this. Thank you for the wisdom!

 

[redinator]

I am learning that most of my chicken problems are rooster related in some way. Sooner or later the day is coming where I have to solve this. Thank you for the wisdom!

I recently had to cull one of mine. He was a minor aggravation on occasion, but generally he gave me space. The only reason I kept him as long as I did was my favorite pullet loved him.

Once Sweety, my favorite pullet was raising chicks in the yard he became a terror. Sweety would bring the chicks over to me for treats and pets. After a few days the male nailed me out of nowhere. He went after my leg and drew blood through jeans. I guess I should've expected it, but I didn't since the chicks were calm and the mother brought them to me. Lesson learned

 

[mermaid_of_the_farm]

I recently had to cull one of mine. He was a minor aggravation on occasion, but generally he gave me space. The only reason I kept him as long as I did was my favorite pullet loved him.

Once Sweety, my favorite pullet was raising chicks in the yard he became a terror. Sweety would bring the chicks over to me for treats and pets. After a few days the male nailed me out of nowhere. He went after my leg and drew blood through jeans. I guess I should've expected it, but I didn't since the chicks were calm and the mother brought them to me. Lesson learned

Ouch! How did you cull him?

 

[Whittni]

Yes, lighter guys are roosters and the darker is a female.

 

[mermaid_of_the_farm]

Yes, lighter guys are roosters and the darker is a female.

Thank you! Hopefully, next time I figure it out a little sooner.

 

[NatJ]

Based on what I researched, I tried guessing their sex based on wing and color. Now that they are about 12 weeks old I am second guessing myself! Pretty sure I was wrong on all 3 .

As you have discovered, wing sexing does not work for most chicks.

There are certain combinations of parents that do produce feather-sexable chicks, but if your rooster and hens are not right for that, then checking the wings will not help.

For color, I don't know what you were looking for. Some combinations of rooster and hens produce color-sexable chicks, but most do not.

 

[redinator]

Ouch! How did you cull him?

There's a series of videos by the same YouTuber going over the process in detail. If you're squeamish, I'm sorry in advance . .

The lesson I learned . . .have a very very sharp knife, mine wasn't and the result wasn't pretty.

Thankfully I had a friend helping me that has experience so he finished the kill. I did the majority of the cleaning and he only stepped in when I got too close to 'things you don't want spoiling the meat'.

Did I enjoy it? No! Would I do it again if necessary? Another time or two with help, I'm sure I could do it on my own.

It helped that I was fed up with the rooster attacking me and I wanted it done, so the emotion was mostly removed the situation.

 

[mermaid_of_the_farm]

There's a series of videos by the same YouTuber going over the process in detail. If you're squeamish, I'm sorry in advance . .

The lesson I learned . . .have a very very sharp knife, mine wasn't and the result wasn't pretty.

Thankfully I had a friend helping me that has experience so he finished the kill. I did the majority of the cleaning and he only stepped in when I got too close to 'things you don't want spoiling the meat'.

Did I enjoy it? No! Would I do it again if necessary? Another time or two with help, I'm sure I could do it on my own.

It helped that I was fed up with the rooster attacking me and I wanted it done, so the emotion was mostly removed the situation.

I'm a little squeamish when it comes to smells and just too soft to kill anything lol I have yet to get over the emotional part of culling. I actually have a brother in law that owns a farm business and butchers his own animals - chickens included. I might seek his help as this does look too much for me to do alone! Thank you for the videos and wisdom

 

[mermaid_of_the_farm]

As you have discovered, wing sexing does not work for most chicks.

There are certain combinations of parents that do produce feather-sexable chicks, but if your rooster and hens are not right for that, then checking the wings will not help.

For color, I don't know what you were looking for. Some combinations of rooster and hens produce color-sexable chicks, but most do not.

Yeah, based on what I read I thought the wing technique would work. Maybe my eyes are not experienced enough. As far as color, I was basing it off parents as a wild guess Dad had the same coloration as my pullet when he was a chick and I have a hen that displayed the same colors as the cockerels. Live and learn I guess!

 

[akroberts1085]

I tried culling 3 roosters and I ended up tossing them because just doing 1 took me over 3 hours so I just decided that I will need someone else to process them for me.