Old farmers leg test for sexing

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

I can only guess it’s the age you are doing it or the way you are doing it. I checked mine EVERY single day until they hit the magic spot and the clarity was there. 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 a total of 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.

Ah, yeah, they definitely didn't have their heads secured or anything. They're a lot older than I usually have done this with and I needed one hand to take the pictures, so I couldn't support their heads at the same time. But, I can assure you that I did wait until they were fully relaxed before taking those pictures, and it would have taken me at least a little more time on top of that to pull my phone out of my pocket, open the camera, get it to focus on them, and snap the picture, all with one hand. As for the previous tests, I feel like I held them pretty securely, but since I don't remember for sure, I guess I can't really be confident in that.

I have chicks hatching now and some that are about one week old as well, so I'll start testing them this weekend and see what happens! I should be able to secure them better as they're much smaller than the chicks I posted the pictures of before. I'll snap a picture or two when I do so you can tell me if I'm holding them right.

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.

Good to hear that the little one has been able to recover! Sounds like the right choice to split them off, mama sounds crazy!! No idea what gets into their heads, but I guess you can only hope she does better or send her packing to broody jail next time and never let her hatch again.

 

[Dinosaur Village Keeper]

Ah, yeah, they definitely didn't have their heads secured or anything. They're a lot older than I usually have done this with and I needed one hand to take the pictures, so I couldn't support their heads at the same time. But, I can assure you that I did wait until they were fully relaxed before taking those pictures, and it would have taken me at least a little more time on top of that to pull my phone out of my pocket, open the camera, get it to focus on them, and snap the picture, all with one hand. As for the previous tests, I feel like I held them pretty securely, but since I don't remember for sure, I guess I can't really be confident in that.

I have chicks hatching now and some that are about one week old as well, so I'll start testing them this weekend and see what happens! I should be able to secure them better as they're much smaller than the chicks I posted the pictures of before. I'll snap a picture or two when I do so you can tell me if I'm holding them right.




Good to hear that the little one has been able to recover! Sounds like the right choice to split them off, mama sounds crazy!! No idea what gets into their heads, but I guess you can only hope she does better or send her packing to broody jail next time and never let her hatch again.

I can’t wait to hear the results on the new babies you have to check! We securely cupped them in our hands. I could see that it was likely very hard for you to take a pic at the same time as hold them that way! Hubby took the pictures for me. You probably don’t need the pics at all.

That mama bird may go further away than jail! I have never killed a chicken because I didn’t like them, only because they were very ill, and even then I usually don’t. But I really dislike a mama bird that has killed one of her babies, and nearly a second one as well. I’m not sure I want her in my flock!

 

[Chicalina]

I'm going to try this later with my chicks. I've got some that are 5 weeks old some 2 weeks old and some 8 weeks old. Will report back.

The 5 and 8 week olds, I know their sex already, so that will be interesting.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

You probably don’t need the pics at all.

Whoops I took them mostly for record keeping, though. If you'd prefer it, I'll just type out the results next time.

I wasn't busy today so I went ahead and tested the chicks today. Double checked on the hatch dates and these babies are all about 6 days old. Two of them hatched late Saturday night, late enough that I'd still consider them 6 days old as of right now. Anyway, I made sure to hold them like this for at least 15 seconds as mentioned so that they were fully relaxed before taking their pictures. All of them except one held their feet part of the way in, pointed upward, like the older pullet I posted before. The last pulled its feet in all the way. Following the theory in the original post, I would assume that this just means they're too young to properly sex this way, so I'll try again in a few days.

For future reference, there are six chicks. They all have a red leg band already so that I could keep track of which coop they originated from, but I added an additional color to be sure I could tell them apart. One has no additional band because I was short on colors, and the others have green, orange, pink, purple, and yellow.

 

[Dinosaur Village Keeper]

Whoops I took them mostly for record keeping, though. If you'd prefer it, I'll just type out the results next time.

I wasn't busy today so I went ahead and tested the chicks today. Double checked on the hatch dates and these babies are all about 6 days old. Two of them hatched late Saturday night, late enough that I'd still consider them 6 days old as of right now. Anyway, I made sure to hold them like this for at least 15 seconds as mentioned so that they were fully relaxed before taking their pictures. All of them except one held their feet part of the way in, pointed upward, like the older pullet I posted before. The last pulled its feet in all the way. Following the theory in the original post, I would assume that this just means they're too young to properly sex this way, so I'll try again in a few days.

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For future reference, there are six chicks. They all have a red leg band already so that I could keep track of which coop they originated from, but I added an additional color to be sure I could tell them apart. One has no additional band because I was short on colors, and the others have green, orange, pink, purple, and yellow.

The pictures are so incredibly cute! Thank you for doing this with me! What breed are the babies?

 

[Dinosaur Village Keeper]

I'm going to try this later with my chicks. I've got some that are 5 weeks old some 2 weeks old and some 8 weeks old. Will report back.

The 5 and 8 week olds, I know their sex already, so that will be interesting.

I can’t wait to hear about your results!!

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

The pictures are so incredibly cute! Thank you for doing this with me! What breed are the babies?

Of course! I love experimenting with this type of thing, and if it does really, truly work, the more data to show it the better!

They are terribly cute, aren't they? They're silkied Cochin bantams, pure Cochins with the gene that gives them fuzzy feathering like a Silkie.

 

[SueT]

My current group of 6 chicks is 10 days old. There 2 chicks that I would guess are cockerels based on their bolder, outgoing behavior, always in front, always first. But they are with a mama hen who would nail me good if I tried to pick them up. If I get a chance in the next couple days, tho, I will try to gently turn them over and see what their legs do.

 

[Dinosaur Village Keeper]

Of course! I love experimenting with this type of thing, and if it does really, truly work, the more data to show it the better!

They are terribly cute, aren't they? They're silkied Cochin bantams, pure Cochins with the gene that gives them fuzzy feathering like a Silkie.

That sounds adorable! Do you have any upright pics of them grown?

 

[Dinosaur Village Keeper]

I tested mine again today, 24 days old, and they still go directly to the same positions. It’s instant though. No need to wait even a few seconds.