Question about sexing chicks.

[LOPRFYLER]

I have 5 banty mongrels that are 5 weeks old. I was trying to sex them by traits that are starting to show up. First of all, their wings and tails are coming in real well, but I noticed that they are getting a few very thick feathers on the back of their necks that look like their tails did when the tails started coming in. I was wondering if those are rooster neck feathers or if hens start out that way also. Another thing that I noticed is that a couple of the chicks will just jump up without warning and dart staight into the huddle of chicks with the neck feathers flared out and holding it's head as high as it can. Is that something hens will do also? Or does it sound like I may have all roosters on my hands. Any info would be great. Thanks.

 

[MissPrissy]

They all do the running and chest bumping and posturing. It is part of establishing their first pecking order.

Sometimes you can tell by the early feathering coming in which is male and female and sometimes you have to wait until they are older.

Post some photos and we'll help you try and sex them.

 

[LOPRFYLER]

This may help:

6_07201926.jpg[/img]

 

[LOPRFYLER]

On the 2nd photo, you can see some of the thick black neck feathers pretty good that I was asking about.

 

[gritsar]

I think I may have spotted one little roo in your bunch, but it would be easier if your pics weren't so light. Are any of your chicks not feathering well across the wing bows?

 

[safari_dave_2008]

What does it mean if they are not "feathering well across the wing bows"?

Our chick isn't. (we think)

 

[gritsar]

Quote:
Picture looking down at the chick from above, with the chick's wings in a natural, easy position against their body. The wing bows are the rounded area at the top of the wings; I sometimes call them the chick's shoulders. Around 4 weeks of age the young cockerels tend to be very bare in that area; to the point that you can see the little bone sticking up. That's one sign that you may have a baby roo, but certainly not the only sign.

 

[LOPRFYLER]

Are you talking about the bald shoulders when wing is held out, or is this something I should see just looking down at them?

All of them have thin feathers in that area, but 2 of them don't have any feathers like in the photos. How accuate is that method of sexing chicks?

 

[gritsar]

It worked for me in sexing my chicks. However, the same chicks that were bald on the wing bows also had the darker, bigger combs and the stouter legs. Out of a total of twenty-one chicks I picked five that were roos using this method and all did indeed turn out to be roos. I don't have use of my own computer right now, but I'll see later on if I can find a copy of the university study that the information came from.

 

[gritsar]

Here's the link to the original thread that Gindee77 posted citing a university paper on sexing chicks by the secondary sex characteristics:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=48329