sexing day old chicks .... fact or fiction

[DIGGIN CHICKEN]

had an old black farmer here at my place the other day ... he picked up a chick an placed its head between his fore and middle finger ..leaving the rest of the body just to dangle in mid air ... apparently if the chick tries to get get out of this position its a male .... and the ones that succumb and just hang there with out a struggle are females ... first time i seen this ... anybody comfirm ???

 

[Birdinhand]

if you remove the reference to race, you might get more answers.

 

[Maddison]

had an old black farmer here at my place the other day ... he picked up a chick an placed its head between his fore and middle finger ..leaving the rest of the body just to dangle in mid air ... apparently if the chick tries to get get out of this position its a male .... and the ones that succumb and just hang there with out a struggle are females ... first time i seen this ... anybody comfirm ???

Fairly certain this is myth, like the dangle the coin over egg trick!! not recommended as you might hurt the chicken, I can't imagine its good for them!

 

[Chicken Girl1]

Fairly certain this is myth, like the dangle the coin over egg trick!! not recommended as you might hurt the chicken, I can't imagine its good for them!

agreed

 

[Beer can]

You'll find out if he's right eventually!

 

[DIGGIN CHICKEN]

if you remove the reference to race, you might get more answers.

black was put there on purpose ... its not a matter of racism ... its just here in south africa black people have their own way of doing things ...they have different beliefs and customs to ours ... and some of the time they pretty spot on ... sometimes you can learn a thing or two from them and other times its just pure dribble !

 

[debid]

If it were that easy, would hatcheries hire people who trained for years to look up vents? No. None of these old methods are anywhere near reliable. They all average close enough to 50/50 that I'd use one of the ones guaranteed not to cause any harm if I wanted to try one. Ring on a string, perhaps.

 

[Poultrybreeder]

If it were that easy, would hatcheries hire people who trained for years to look up vents? No. None of these old methods are anywhere near reliable. They all average close enough to 50/50 that I'd use one of the ones guaranteed not to cause any harm if I wanted to try one. Ring on a string, perhaps.

X2, Have a great day and God Bless!

 

[Trish1974]

had an old black farmer here at my place the other day ... he picked up a chick an placed its head between his fore and middle finger ..leaving the rest of the body just to dangle in mid air ... apparently if the chick tries to get get out of this position its a male .... and the ones that succumb and just hang there with out a struggle are females ... first time i seen this ... anybody comfirm ???

My former receptionist swore by this method. She would go to the farm stores and do this to the chicks in the straight run bin and said she was never wrong. I don't see how it could work, and like the others said, if it was accurate hatcheries would do it. Plus I'd be afraid of it hurting the chicks.

 

[Kusanar]

black was put there on purpose ... its not a matter of racism ... its just here in south africa black people have their own way of doing things ...they have different beliefs and customs to ours ... and some of the time they pretty spot on ... sometimes you can learn a thing or two from them and other times its just pure dribble !

May want to add your location then. For people in America, black is a race, not a cultural thing like it is there. Our black people are supposed to be seen exactly the same as the whites and we live and work together. I know, it's a different world in South Africa, but people here don't immediately think that.

That being said, it would be an interesting experiment, to get a bunch of chicks, either straight run from a store or hatch them, "sex" them by this method and put them in 2 bins, one for males and 1 for females. Then as they get old enough, band them with 2 different colors, one for males and one for females and see how your numbers work out as they get old enough to tell for sure the gender.

May even be interesting to find a lot of these methods, and band every chick with it's own unique number/color, test every chick with every method and keep a sheet of how they scored, then see which method was most accurate.