sexing chicks

[acope]

I have 10 Dominique chicks and would like to know if you can sex them? They are 3 weeks old.

 

[Ridgerunner]

At three weeks the easiest way may be to look at color if they are pure Dominique. Due to the sex link characteristics of the barred gene, males will have two copies and females wil have one copy. This makes the females darker and the males lighter in general color. They should be feathered out enough at three weeks for you to be able to see the difference.

Don't bet the bank on this or any other method of sexing chicks this young, at least until you get enough experience that you have confidence in your abilities. These are more tendencies than absolute laws of nature, but they are definitely tendencies. With experience, they can work.

One way you can kind of tell is right at hatch. Since they have two barred genes, the males will have a larger white spot on their hear than the females. It's probably too late for this to do you any good now and this does take some experience. It can get tricky. Someone, I think SpeckledHen but I'm not sure, had photos showing this. You can do it, but it is tricky.

 

[weimarmama]

&

from Alabama. Glad you joined us. Great advice given. Congrats on your chicks and good luck

 

[sumi]

Hello and

 

[4-H chicken mom]

Hi and from Ohio. So glad to have you aboard.

 

[Kevin565]