May 2020 Hatch-A-Long

[CluckNDoodle]

Do you have a good video or link I could watch or a tip for vent sexing. I have 30+ chicks they are a day old now so I was going to try tomorrow. Along with some other old wives tales like if they pull their legs up, etc.. do some guessing...

Or if I post baby pics, can you guess? I have 50% Marans, and the rest maran/mixes (OE) and then 5 Lav. Orpington, and a few EE from my own backyard mix. Both my CLB are roos of course....
:-(

No, unfortunately I watched a couple YouTube videos on the subject but they didn't really show anything helpful. I don't "poop" the chicks like the authentic vent sexers at hatcheries and I don't pull on the vent because it's so easy to seriously hurt the chicks. I found that with a bit of patience the chicks usually show you what they're working with, lol. A q-tip in hand to hold the fluff out of the way and waiting for the chicks to do a pumping motion with their bum and you will be able to see a shiny little bump at the top of it's a boy or nothing if it's a girl. I just started doing it and so far it's working well for me but not 100% foolproof due to inexperience.

 

[CluckNDoodle]

Do you have a good video or link I could watch or a tip for vent sexing. I have 30+ chicks they are a day old now so I was going to try tomorrow. Along with some other old wives tales like if they pull their legs up, etc.. do some guessing...

Or if I post baby pics, can you guess? I have 50% Marans, and the rest maran/mixes (OE) and then 5 Lav. Orpington, and a few EE from my own backyard mix. Both my CLB are roos of course....
:-(

On a positive note, Marans and Marans mixes usually show roos really really early.

 

[CindyinSD]

No, unfortunately I watched a couple YouTube videos on the subject but they didn't really show anything helpful. I don't "poop" the chicks like the authentic vent sexers at hatcheries and I don't pull on the vent because it's so easy to seriously hurt the chicks. I found that with a bit of patience the chicks usually show you what they're working with, lol. A q-tip in hand to hold the fluff out of the way and waiting for the chicks to do a pumping motion with their bum and you will be able to see a shiny little bump at the top of it's a boy or nothing if it's a girl. I just started doing it and so far it's working well for me but not 100% foolproof due to inexperience.

The "top" being the side closest to the head? Or the side that ends up closest to the sky in an upright chicken?

 

[CluckNDoodle]

The "top" being the side closest to the head? Or the side that ends up closest to the sky in an upright chicken?

Top being the top of the vent, by the tail.
This is a good video showing real vent sexing but I really don't recommend this method to those that don't know what they're doing because you can actually seriously injure your chicks.

Another trick I learned along the way is that the pelvic bones are closer together on roosters than pullets even before they start laying. That's a very non-invasive technique to checking the sex. You just put your fingers on the tips of the pelvic bones on either side of the vent. If your fingers form a V it's likely a girl and if they're very close together it's likely a boy. Hope that helps!

 

[FortCluck]

Do you have a good video or link I could watch or a tip for vent sexing. I have 30+ chicks they are a day old now so I was going to try tomorrow. Along with some other old wives tales like if they pull their legs up, etc.. do some guessing...

Or if I post baby pics, can you guess? I have 50% Marans, and the rest maran/mixes (OE) and then 5 Lav. Orpington, and a few EE from my own backyard mix. Both my CLB are roos of course....
:-(

Chicken chicks are so much harder than ducks. I vent sex my ducks, but never chicken chicks. With chicken chicks it's so easy to sex them wrong. Most hatcheries get them wrong every once in a while too.

 

[Minky]

Yes, but with practice and logging my information and observations I will get better at it.

Thanks for the tips!

 

[Perris]

Someone needs to kick me off ebay! I keep looking at all the hatching eggs for sale and keep coming up with more chickens I want! I am seriously debating getting some Swedish Flower Hens now.

get them! they're wonderful chickens!

 

[Jehri]

Have you guys heard of the concept of nail sexing? It works in exotics and flying birds idk if it does chickens but I would think so. Someone here with known genders could give it a shot and let us know maybe lol. I’ve done every bird I know DNA on in my aviary and it’s matched up. Check it out

 

[Jehri]

So I have no patience at all! I candles my eggs when I turned them this morning because I wanted to know if I killed them the other day. I have several too dark to see through. I have one I pulled because it was a blood ring. Bummer too cause it was one of the beautiful robin’s egg blue ones. One is showing nothing yet. There’s severally with definite development thought and I clearly saw a heartbeat in one so we are definitely alive in there. new better incubator with here comes tomorrow so I can relax a bit

 

[CluckNDoodle]

Have you guys heard of the concept of nail sexing? It works in exotics and flying birds idk if it does chickens but I would think so. Someone here with known genders could give it a shot and let us know maybe lol. I’ve done every bird I know DNA on in my aviary and it’s matched up. Check it out

Sure! I'll give it a try once the Marans hatch. We used to do this with pregnancies to see if we were having a girl or boy. It didn't work for that. Lol