Sexing chicks

[LABird]

Can anyone give me information on sexing chicks at 1 day old? At 1 week? Older?

 

[nuthatched]

Professionals vent sex day Olds, after that, you wait until about 6- 8 weeks for comb color.

 

[LadiesAndJane]

If you have auto-sexing breeds or sex-linked breeds, you can tell at hatch.

 

[MysteryChicken]

I use the Wing Bud Sexing method for all my birds from a range of day 1-3.

 

[nuthatched]

I use the Wing Bud Sexing method for all my birds from a range of day 1-3.

You're the only person I know of that's actually successful at it though!

 

[TheOddOneOut]

Can anyone give me information on sexing chicks at 1 day old? At 1 week? Older?

You can’t.
You might hear myths about feather sexing or “try it at home vent sexing” but neither of those will work for you.
At 6-8 weeks we can safely make an educated assessment and decide gender based on feather color, comb and wattle growth, and other things (sometimes) like leg size or early saddles.

 

[TheOddOneOut]

I use the Wing Bud Sexing method for all my birds from a range of day 1-3.

*sigh* Yes, I understand that you have perfected this....but us noobs don’t have the ability to. I feel like it’s not gonna work out for any old person.
That being said, I would love to see you test it when your birds hatch!

 

[MysteryChicken]

*sigh* Yes, I understand that you have perfected this....but us noobs don’t have the ability to. I feel like it’s not gonna work out for any old person.
That being said, I would love to see you test it when your birds hatch!

Can't I just say I use it, since it's the only way I do it?

Yes, I'll be posting when I have peeps hatching.

 

[FuzzyCritters]

I've sexed day-old chicks using wing feather length with 100% accuracy. Pullets feather faster than males, so at a day old they should have longer feathers.
Zoom in on the wings and you can see the difference in these brahma chicks.
This pullet has small primary feathers growing in:

This cockerel has no feathers growing in:

This method works best when you compare the same breed to each other. Different breeds can have totally different wing lengths at hatch, so it doesn't really work comparing those breeds to each other.
There's a lot of debate on whether this works or not, so form your own educated opinion.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Can anyone give me information on sexing chicks at 1 day old? At 1 week? Older?

Which breeds and colors? There are some that you can sex at hatch but it's pretty limited. What are you working with. If they are crosses of different colors or breeds, which one is the father and which the other?

The first post in this very long thread explains what it takes to sex certain chicks by a sex linked method. This post only covers red sex links, black sex links, and feather sexing but there are few other methods. If the parents are set up properly genetically then it works. If they are not then it doesn't work.

Tadkerson’s Sex Link Thread

http://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=261208

This link tells you what characteristics the different sexes show as they grow. These are more general, they are often more clues than absolutes. Many of these traits kick in at 5 weeks, though sometimes you can sex a chick younger. Sometimes five weeks isn't nearly enough. Experience does help with this.

How to sex chicks

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