Male or Female?

youngchickgirl

In the Brooder
5 Years
Jan 28, 2014
16
0
22
Dunlap Il
Okay, so I have a little coop with a small amount of chickens. I am incubating some eggs right now and they just have three more days! How exciting! What is making me nervous is if I get any boys. From what I have learned from searching the internet, I have picked up that when the chicks are a few days old you can look at their wings to tell the gender. What do I look for? This is going to be my first time being with the chicks right after they hatch because I got my first chickens at 2 weeks old so their wings were more developed.
 
Hate to be a naysayer but if ANY of these "how to tell sex at an early age," wisdoms were accurate NO ONE would be stuck with nearly adult pullets that morph into roosters.

If you check out the Buy,sell,trade forum you will see mostly roosters for sale - some sellers will not allow you to buy pullets/hens unless you take a (free) rooster. There is a section for free animals in need of rehoming. Again check how many roosters are being offered.

Lurk on any threads here and see how many people are lamenting being STUCK with a majority of cockerels hatching.

Hatcheries tuck in "packing peanuts ," which end up being free males that can't be disposed of as easily as the real Styrofoam.
pellets.

Your best bet would be to buy sex links - certain mixes that yield females or males as being a particular color. For instance red sex links would be pullets. If not that, buy breeds at "point of lay," - females just about to begin laying.

In silkies and some other breeds that can't be sexed early - you wait till it crows or lays eggs. Some sellers will sell "sexed" chicks for a higher price and yet people still get stuck with males.
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Hate to be a naysayer but if ANY of these "how to tell sex at an early age," wisdoms were accurate NO ONE would be stuck with nearly adult pullets that morph into roosters.

If you check out the Buy,sell,trade forum you will see mostly roosters for sale - some sellers will not allow you to buy pullets/hens unless you take a (free) rooster. There is a section for free animals in need of rehoming. Again check how many roosters are being offered.

Lurk on any threads here and see how many people are lamenting being STUCK with a majority of cockerels hatching.

Hatcheries tuck in "packing peanuts ," which end up being free males that can't be disposed of as easily as the real Styrofoam.
pellets.

Your best bet would be to buy sex links - certain mixes that yield females or males as being a particular color. For instance red sex links would be pullets. If not that, buy breeds at "point of lay," - females just about to begin laying.

In silkies and some other breeds that can't be sexed early - you wait till it crows or lays eggs. Some sellers will sell "sexed" chicks for a higher price and yet people still get stuck with males.
he.gif

Big X2


Alright
welcome-byc.gif
great to have you onboard with us
frow.gif
 
If you are incubating eggs, at some point (you won't be able to stop) you will end up with some males. The best thing is to plan for that now, and if you really can't handle it, throw out all the eggs before they hatch and only buy sex linked pullet chicks. Of course you don't want to do that now!

Generally, you can give away roosters for free on Craigslist (or similar). You probably will suspect that most of these are going to be eaten, and that is probably right, so you should make peace with that now. It's part of the package deal with hatching chicks.
 
welcome-byc.gif
Glad you joined us! Unfortunately, wing sexing only works with a few breeds, and even then, it isn't always accurate. Unless your chicks are sex-linked, you probably won't know whether they are male or female until they reach (at least) 6-8 weeks of age. By then, the males will have larger, redder combs and may be developing more flashy coloring on their bodies.

Good luck with your hatch!
 

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