Old farmers leg test for sexing

[Dinosaur Village Keeper]

Hello, I do like the idea of having another reliable sexing technique. However I do see two faults in this theory. The first fault I see is that this looks to me like confirmation bias. You stated with an answer and are looking for the evidence to support it. I’m not trying to bash you I support your studies and hope you do find an answer. I’m just giving my opinion as someone on the outside looking in

The second fault is I don’t see many people wanting to use this technique. If it works at all it takes a minimum of 14 days to get reliable results. The biggest reason to sex a chicken early is too avoid the cost of feeding the males. I’m not trying to debate the value of a life just stating the facts. The most males aren’t worth the cost it takes to feed and house them. Also you can’t ship a 2 week old chick as easily as a day old. This method simply takes too much profit out of the business

It do hope you found your answer and wish you good luck in your search

Yeah, your explanation has nothing to do with anything I was trying to accomplish. I could care less about the cruelty involved with the eating of innocent animals. I have yet to see people post asking what gender their chicken is so they can eat it. This thread seems to be people wanting to know what their birds are because they are concerned about the flock dynamics or their neighbors. I have yet to understand why people want to bash a fun, natural, and simple way of testing gender.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

I hope I didn't come off as bashing your test for your chicks or anything, it's just something that I put a lot of time into for several years so I had some data for it and figured it was worth sharing.

I did go ahead and test my current youngest chicks, around one to one and a half months of age if I remember correctly but I can double check. I checked 3 pullets and 3 cockerels because after that point I started questioning whether I had tested a particular chick already and it was confusing. I actually performed the test 8 times and then realized when I got back in with the pictures that two of them were likely repeat chicks. Anyway, 6 more data points at least! This doesn't necessarily disprove that there's a particular sweet spot age that these chicks are outside of or something, but as you can see they were all over the place with their legs.

Pullets:

I don't know if I'd call this one tucked or stretched, her feet were kind of pointed upward with the toes curled.

Cockerels:

Oh, and all of them struggled very briefly and then relaxed, not sure where that falls in the other test.

 

[Dinosaur Village Keeper]

I hope I didn't come off as bashing your test for your chicks or anything, it's just something that I put a lot of time into for several years so I had some data for it and figured it was worth sharing.

I did go ahead and test my current youngest chicks, around one to one and a half months of age if I remember correctly but I can double check. I checked 3 pullets and 3 cockerels because after that point I started questioning whether I had tested a particular chick already and it was confusing. I actually performed the test 8 times and then realized when I got back in with the pictures that two of them were likely repeat chicks. Anyway, 6 more data points at least! This doesn't necessarily disprove that there's a particular sweet spot age that these chicks are outside of or something, but as you can see they were all over the place with their legs.

Pullets:

View attachment 3585199View attachment 3585201

I don't know if I'd call this one tucked or stretched, her feet were kind of pointed upward with the toes curled.

View attachment 3585202

Cockerels:

View attachment 3585204View attachment 3585205View attachment 3585207

Oh, and all of them struggled very briefly and then relaxed, not sure where that falls in the other test.

They look so adorable like that! Thank you for taking the time to do that. I tried it with my 12 week old chicks and it didn’t work. I think there is an age where it no longer works. Yours didn’t seem to have clear and obvious results at all. It probably no longer works around 3 weeks or so. I will keep checking my babies to see when it changes. Mama just jumped up onto a 4 foot door and then jumped down directly on the blue baby. Sweetest baby chick I’ve ever had, but I’m not sure she is going to make it through that. That mama is awful.

 

[Dinosaur Village Keeper]

We done this on ALL of our chickens and it worked on them. If they lay still on their back it’s a pullet if it fights to get up it a roo

At what age does this work?

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

They look so adorable like that! Thank you for taking the time to do that. I tried it with my 12 week old chicks and it didn’t work. I think there is an age where it no longer works. Yours didn’t seem to have clear and obvious results at all. It probably no longer works around 3 weeks or so. I will keep checking my babies to see when it changes.

I missed your last post, apologies! I checked some chicks under one of my broodies a few days ago, a day or two over 3 weeks of age. All three kept their feet in. I really hope that they're in the theorized sweet spot age still and that this works, I could sure use more pullets!

Mama just jumped up onto a 4 foot door and then jumped down directly on the blue baby. Sweetest baby chick I’ve ever had, but I’m not sure she is going to make it through that. That mama is awful.

Sorry to hear this! How is this little one doing now? Some hens just aren't good at raising chicks, unfortunately.

 

[The cheek coop]

At what age does this work?

Around 10 weeks. I am by no means an expert I am definitely a novice when it comes to this however it worked on all of our flock.

 

[Dinosaur Village Keeper]

I went to Tractor supply with a friend today… The woman that helped us with the chicks had never heard of the leg test. She knew how to vent sex and knew all the other tricks. She turned over all of the babies that were auto sexing, and were somewhere between 7-9 days old (she thought younger, but they weren’t). ALL of them held their legs as expected. She then went over to the bin with the sexed chicks that were a bit younger and tried it on them as well. A couple of them had one leg up and one leg down, but most of them held both legs up tight against their bodies. I placed them at 4 to 7 days old based on their wing growth and when she said they arrived. She checked the sex link chicks as well and they ALL pulled their legs in tight.

It is beyond me why so many people want to bash knowing possible fun ways to determine whether your bird is male or female. What does it matter? To me, that is such a great ignorance. There is no reason for it, except that they hate for people to know which birds are roosters because the problem remains with them because nobody will want to buy their males. It basically equates to less money for them, hence the bashing of people that are just having fun sexing their birds!

No one wants to narrow this down because there’s too much bashing where there is no reason for there to be any at all. It is the craziest thing…

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Hmm, that still doesn't explain the 36 definitely incorrectly sexed chicks and 19 inconclusive (one leg in, one leg out) chicks out of a total of 87 that I tested over the years using the same method, though, most at around the same ages as those TSC chicks. Can you explain how to do the test correctly? Is there something more than simply flipping them onto their backs and seeing where their legs go?


Editing, I forgot as well, I separated the sexed chicks from the straight run ones in my data, so I actually tested a grand total of 101 chicks with that method and only 40 sexed correctly out of all of them, with 20 one-in-one-out chicks that were 13 males and 7 females. That's not counting the 6 I posted above, either.

 

[Dinosaur Village Keeper]

Hmm, that still doesn't explain the 36 definitely incorrectly sexed chicks and 19 inconclusive (one leg in, one leg out) chicks out of a total of 87 that I tested over the years using the same method, though, most at around the same ages as those TSC chicks. Can you explain how to do the test correctly? Is there something more than simply flipping them onto their backs and seeing where their legs go?


Editing, I forgot as well, I separated the sexed chicks from the straight run ones in my data, so I actually tested a grand total of 101 chicks with that method and only 40 sexed correctly out of all of them, with 20 one-in-one-out chicks that were 13 males and 7 females. That's not counting the 6 I posted above, either.

I can only guess it’s the age or the way they are being held? It is interesting to see if there is some consistency as to when they hold their legs a certain way. Their heads MUST be secured. They MUST be fully relaxed. That is not at all what your pics showed. The woman in TS held them each for about 15 seconds. The males had their legs up for a few seconds and then lowered them down as they relaxed. The females relaxed as well, but their legs stayed up. You have to hold them a few seconds past when they are nice and calm and happy looking.

 

[Dinosaur Village Keeper]

I missed your last post, apologies! I checked some chicks under one of my broodies a few days ago, a day or two over 3 weeks of age. All three kept their feet in. I really hope that they're in the theorized sweet spot age still and that this works, I could sure use more pullets!




Sorry to hear this! How is this little one doing now? Some hens just aren't good at raising chicks, unfortunately.

I have had to put mama in a cage so they can see her and have them outside the cage with a heater. I put their food and water next to hers. That way when she tries to cluck them to her for food, they see theirs and eat it without being stressed. She was running them ragged and never stopping to warm them. And then jumping on them! When they try to get under her to get warm, she sends them flying with her insane scratching. She is so over stimulated for some reason that she can’t stop moving and scratching. When she does stop to warm them, which is rare, she only squats down to about 1-2 inches from the ground. It’s bizarre. She is let out of the cage a few times a day and then to put them to bed. She manages to keep them warm at night, plus it’s been very warm. Baby seems good today after being able to rest and stay warm for a couple of days.