Sexing chicks by breathing rate? Has this been done before?

[Wonderwend]

Today I read a gem of information:

Male chickens breathe at 18-20 breaths per minute
Females breathe at 30-35 breaths per minute
I began to wonder if you could sex a chicken just by it's breathing rate.

I have five 7 week old chicks and if I go by their breathing rate, only one is a Rooster. I had suspected it as a male anyway just by its behaviour.
Has anyone done this before??

I will let you know my results as soon as I confirm sexes later!
I'm hoping I've stumbled upon a fantastically easy way to sex chickens

 

[donrae]

Where did you get that information? I've never heard of a difference in respiratory rates in gender of any species. I've heard of differences in heart rates, but thought that had mostly been disproved. It was based on the theory that females are smaller and therefore would have faster heart rates.

 

[Wonderwend]

Oh, donrae I hope I haven't gotten or fed misinformation. I will look it up again as soon as I can. I did notice a difference in mine though. I'll link the page - assuming I can find it again. i was looking up their normal temperatures and read this as a side note.
Thanks for questioning it.

 

[Wonderwend]

I actually read it here : http://www.veganpeace.com/animal_facts/Chickens.htm and then I was worried about the source (!) so investigated further and found this:
http://extension.illinois.edu/eggs/res08-whatis.html
Many sites just quote the whole 18-35 range rather than splitting it into male/female.
I'm now unsure as to what to think.
Opinions????

 

[aart]

Never heard that one either...keep checking and let us know if its accurate.

Oh, and is it resting or after exercise that you measure respiration?(tongue in cheek)

 

[Wonderwend]

I checked it at rest. I will keep an eye. Would anyone else be kind enough to check the breathing rates of their roosting flock to see if they see a difference too?

 

[XxMingirlxX]

Interesting, breathing and heart rates are usually determined by the size of the animal rather than any links to gender. It is all to do with how long it takes for the blood to circulate the body and return to the heart and lungs. So if you have a smaller animal, the blood circulates much faster so the heart needs to beat more and they need to breathe more. Smaller animals also tend to have faster metabolic rates (the rate at which chemical reactions occur in the body) so use more energy, and thus need the blood to transfer more nutrients and oxygen to the cells so respiration can occur to produce more energy.

References:
http://organsm14.imascientist.org.u...als-heart-beats-the-quickest-and-the-slowest/
http://www.math.niu.edu/~kong/360/014.pdf

So I would imagine any differences between fully grown male and female chickens were due to size as males tend to be larger. Although I doubt it's a large difference.

But carry on the experiment and let us know your results

 

[Wonderwend]

I did think it was a bit odd. I'm very familiar with the human respiratory system and wanted to see if there was a difference. I've discovered the joys of their unique respiratory system and am learning new stuff. I hope other people will be willing to check their own flocks so that I can support or refute this theory

 

[XxMingirlxX]

I did think it was a bit odd. I'm very familiar with the human respiratory system and wanted to see if there was a difference. I've discovered the joys of their unique respiratory system and am learning new stuff. I hope other people will be willing to check their own flocks so that I can support or refute this theory

I would but I only have girls

 

[Wonderwend]

Thank you anyway Mingirl x