Sexing eggs!

[CherriesBrood]

Your welcome Lozuufy. Oh I can't wait to see your Linda! What breed are they?

 

[CherriesBrood]

I forgot to mention that when vent sexing be more careful than this guy is, he's a little rough to the babies. I don't do it that hard, and I can still make out if it's a boy or girl. If you do it too rough it can damage chicks internal organs.

 

[lazy gardener]

Interesting. May have to try it next spring.

 

[CherriesBrood]

Well it seems like my little babies have adopted a mama! And it's not a chicken!

It's my little Candi, a chihuahua! She lets them jump up on her and snuggle in her fur, and they go under her. They really love her! Just take a look.

 

[lindalouly]

That is so cute... I'm just hatching back yard mutts. Delaware rooster over austrolorps, white jersey Giants and New Hampshire and delawAre hen.

 

[greylock]

I would also like to see the video of vent sexing.

 

[abqchicken]

Here is a Dirty Jobs video about it. Bump - roo, no bump - pullet. There are other videos on YouTube.

http://www.discovery.com/tv-shows/dirty-jobs/videos/chicken-sexer/

 

[Snow bunny]

Good luck with that. IMO, it takes a lot of training, and it's easy to hurt the chick if you don't know how to do it right... then again... the best way to learn is by doing. But, here's the followup question: If you are able to vent sex them, and do it accurately, (considering that the hatcheries are typically 90% or less with their accuracy) WHAT will you do with this information? How will it benefit you in your management? Will you immediately cull the males? Or separate them out into a grow out pen? (I can't see the benefit there, as they would be raised the same as females, and could be separated when they declare themselves by secondary sex characteristics.) Or will you sell them? Not much market for DP cockrels.

I agree with what you say here, lazy gardener. There are many cockerels for free with no takers. I don't believe in hatching and culling straight away, that is why I like the egg shape that I use. Vent sexing is very hit or miss if you don't know what is what. I worked at a chook farm and was shown vent sexing, and believe me when I say that they do get it wrong.
Little chicks are very hardy, but mucking around with them to TRY vent sexing is wrong, unless you are trained by someone who knows how. I also have a friend who insisted she new how to vent sex and ended up culling the females and growing the males, now she is wanting some of my female chicks that I hatched from egg shape. So, here you can see that by getting it wrong, you can end up with a lot of roosters. In this area, we can have one rooster, so my friends roosters are going to join the other free rooster on a site, or will have to be culled. I feel sorry for the roosters as it is not their fault of being born, so I'd rather not hatch them in the beginning.

 

[lazy gardener]

Yeah, my hubby suggests that if I have sex links, the thing to do with the cockrels is to kill them at hatch. No feed bill in raising them, and no crowing, or fighting while waiting for them to get to a good crock pot size. I just can't bring myself to do that. Will cull to eat or for defect affecting quality of life, and to remove non productive birds... but to cull just for gender, I can't wrap my head around it.

 

[Snow bunny]

I can't either. It just seems cruel to me. I just hope that they come to their senses about vent sexing. I am like you. I cannot face killing chooks.