My Great Pullet or Cockerel Hypothesis - Documented with Word! Join Me

[Colorist]

I am SO bored and love to do little projects like this. I am doing it for myself for future records.

Story: I have 11 different colors of leg bands in all different sizes I found yesterday. Why not put them to good use?

Basically, I will get random straight run chicks, and legband them with two bands each. One on each leg. No combination will repeat, (ex. red and yellow only once. Not rearranged like yellow and red plus red and yellow. This is because I cannot tell my right from left sometimes XD )

The math part:
I came up with 66 different combinations of leg bands. I have a word document with 66 boxes. Each box has the color combo, a space for a name, and C/P, C/P, C/P, H/R.
C/P stands for cockerel or pullet. I circle whichever one I think they might be at the time.

How it works:

C/P #1
Each chick will be sexed as a day old by using the wives tale the lady at the feedstore told me. They will also be given a name based on the legband combination (ex. green and pink - "watermelon") I will circle pullet or cockerel, either in black pen.

C/P #2
They will be looked at carefully again at three weeks based on feather development and combs. Still room for error and gender mistakes here. If I am positive someone is a he or she, I will circle the C or P with red. If I am unsure about someone, I may circle one or both with blue.

C/P #3
I should be able to tell now by two months, but I will ask the BYC members if I am still unsure. If I was right the last time I put pullet or cockerel, I will circle the same thing again, but use orange. If I was just plain wrong and the BYC guessed right, then circle the right gender in yellow.

FOLLOW UP: HEN OR ROO?
Now at anywhere from three months and up, I now know who is what

I can now answer who is a hen and who is a rooster. I can also sell the ones I don't want. Circle H for hen or R for rooster. Circle kept poultry and their genders with green if they are going to stay with me, going to be sold- circle with purple.

And there you go!

I plan to start on this soon. Does anyone want to help of join? I might not have explained very well, but it all works in my mind, so please don't ask me to change anything. You can copy my idea or modify it for your own project! Just be sure to join me on this thread

Oh, I also have the word template I can email if anyone wants it.

Now I just gotta go buy some chickens or hatch some eggs... *runs to Ideal* they are having that bantam special, after all... -OR- Anyone got some eggs for sale? Don't really care what type of chicken as long as you can pack them well.

 

[Mahonri]

Sounds like fun.

... but I don't band mine. perhaps I should.

 

[wolftracks]

I'd like to have it.

I got started on something like this befor my husband passed away, but just can't seem to get back to it and figure out what I was doing.

Another spelling error.

 

[silkieroo]

Thats sounds like an interesting excperiment! What is the old wives tale on how to sex them?(I'm always looking for ideas

)

Good Luck,
Maddie

 

[Colorist]

Quote:
I have heard of several, but the lady at the feedstore tells me to put the chicks feet on either sides of your middle finger while holding them upside down. You slide your hand under them and just flip them like that, because if you don't pick them up right, apparently, they will react differently. XD

If they struggle for more than three seconds and don't give up, you've got a cockerel. If it struggles for a few seconds and gives up, or doesn't struggle at all, pullet.

I think some BYC members do a similar method a different way, because it seems familiar, but this is what exactly what the lady suggested (its her way of doing it and she says it works) and its what I'm doing too ^^

 

[wolftracks]

OK I'm gonna go flip some chicks.

 

[Colorist]

I remember she did this at the store with me for five silkie (assumed pullets). We got four pullets, and one gentle rooster who is a big baby

I tried it with five more, and got three roosters. LOL

I'm not saying it always works, but who knows, maybe some people have lots of luck with it.