Is there any way to sex buff orpington chicks? They're 2 days old.

[redfeather]

My hens hatched eggs for the first time... out of nine eggs she was sitting on, nine hatched (athough I had to do ALL the work for two of them,[other than the tiny break they had made) they are doing great now...).

I was wondering what's the earliest time to sex them? I plan on keeping the pullets and having the cockerels for the table (when should they be butchered, since I am asking?)


Thanks... I decided to let them hatch since we hadn't gotten any new chicks this year (do to the fact that we got "sexed" hens and two out of five were males!!).

 

[Pequena Bandada]

Not unless you're a professional vent-sexer! Seriously, Buff Orpingtons are notoriously hard to sex when they're young. You're going to have to wait until they develop a bit more (three months probably). You don't want to harvest the cockerels until then anyway because they won't be big enough to eat.

 

[HennyJenny]

All you can do is hope for another five to ten weeks when they are feathered out.

I butchered my buff roos at around 17 weeks when they got onery- they were a little skinny but tasty. I think locked up in a pen on some hot feed they might be better another few weeks after that. I would search on here and see if anyone is using BOs as dual purpose birds - they might have some more firmed up ideas.

Congrats on the babies!

 

[mississippifarmboy]

Can't speak for any other lines, but our Buffs are fairly easy to sex after a couple weeks as the pullets will start to grow tail feathers by the time they are two weeks old. The little roos usually don't start putting on tail feathers until around five weeks old or so. Might just be our strain though, I've heard others say that they couldn't tell with their chicks.
About 95 % right on this year's hatch (Around 60 - 70 chicks)

 

[hongyush2008]

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hha, interesting question...very fan!

 

[redfeather]

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Thanks all... I guess I will watch out for that. Hopefully it will work with mine! I need to get bands so I'll be able to distinguish this batch from "the older crowd".