Sexing practises of small hatcheries and breeders

[Joeschooks]

We know large hatcheries employ vent sexers, but I’m curious to know how small hatcheries and local breeders separate the males from the females.

I was reading an interesting article which says about vent sexing: “It was a tough job, and very hard to learn—maybe one in 30 folks who tried it got the hang of it, and maybe one in 100 was good enough to be a professional,” says Hugh Grove, a legendary chicken sexer who spent 62-years plying his craft.

So bearing in mind the difficulties of vent sexing do these small professional breeders become proficient enough to vent sex themselves?

I imagine the only other options are to hire a professional sexer following a hatch or to grow the birds out for a few weeks until they can tell by feathering or comb size etc.

 

[sylviethecochin]

Short answer: They don't. Most small breeders do not sell sexed birds. But there are exceptions, of course.

Sex-linked birds:

If you breed a fast-feathering rooster to a slow-feathering hen, you get fast-feathering baby pullets and slow-feathering baby cockerels. (Note that this is only distinguishable right after hatch.)

A non-barred rooster over a barred hen gives barred boys (which have single spots on their heads) and non-barred pullets, which do not.

Chocolate coloring is a sex-linked gene. Chocolate rooster over non-chocolate hen gives you chocolate pullets.

Silver and gold are sex-linked--if the hen carries gold and the rooster carries two copies of silver, the male chicks will be gold/cream and the females will be silver. Note that dominant white (Leghorn) and recessive white (silkie) are not silver.They are white.

I believe that black skin is sexlinked, if you plan on crossing silkies or ayam cemanis with something.

Other ways to sex:

RIRs and New Hampshires both have small spots on the wings in the male chicks. They loose this as they feather out.

Barred rock boys (and presumably other barred chickens, such as Dominiques and Cuckoo Marans) have larger, messier head spots than the girls. Don't ask me to sex these ones, though--they all look the same to me.

Some breeds of chickens, such as OEGBs can be sexed by their baby fluff--roosters are grey, females are browner.

I've noted that my cochin bantams are really easy to sex when young because of fast comb development in the males. On this one, YMMV.

 

[Joeschooks]

Short answer: They don't. Most small breeders do not sell sexed birds. But there are exceptions, of course.

Sex-linked birds:

If you breed a fast-feathering rooster to a slow-feathering hen, you get fast-feathering baby pullets and slow-feathering baby cockerels. (Note that this is only distinguishable right after hatch.)

A non-barred rooster over a barred hen gives barred boys (which have single spots on their heads) and non-barred pullets, which do not.

Chocolate coloring is a sex-linked gene. Chocolate rooster over non-chocolate hen gives you chocolate pullets.

Silver and gold are sex-linked--if the hen carries gold and the rooster carries two copies of silver, the male chicks will be gold/cream and the females will be silver. Note that dominant white (Leghorn) and recessive white (silkie) are not silver.They are white.

I believe that black skin is sexlinked, if you plan on crossing silkies or ayam cemanis with something.

Other ways to sex:

RIRs and New Hampshires both have small spots on the wings in the male chicks. They loose this as they feather out.

Barred rock boys (and presumably other barred chickens, such as Dominiques and Cuckoo Marans) have larger, messier head spots than the girls. Don't ask me to sex these ones, though--they all look the same to me.

Some breeds of chickens, such as OEGBs can be sexed by their baby fluff--roosters are grey, females are browner.

I've noted that my cochin bantams are really easy to sex when young because of fast comb development in the males. On this one, YMMV.

Thanks for your comprehensive reply. Some of those sex-link traits I am familiar with and others I was not so that will be a useful resource for my future hatching!

So birds that are neither autosexing nor sex-linked, do the breeders just grow these out until some sexual dimorphism becomes apparent? Presumably those that are easier to sex will tend to be cheaper and possibly more readily available? (At the moment I’ve got some three week old UK standard Lavender Araucana which are renowned over here for being almost impossible to sex until their sickles come in; I’m wondering if that might be part of the reason these beautiful birds are tricky to get hold of and when they are available they’re at the higher end of the price range.)

 

[sylviethecochin]

Thanks for your comprehensive reply. Some of those sex-link traits I am familiar with and others I was not so that will be a useful resource for my future hatching!

So birds that are neither autosexing nor sex-linked, do the breeders just grow these out until some sexual dimorphism becomes apparent? Presumably those that are easier to sex will tend to be cheaper and possibly more readily available? (At the moment I’ve got some three week old UK standard Lavender Araucana which are renowned over here for being almost impossible to sex until their sickles come in; I’m wondering if that might be part of the reason these beautiful birds are tricky to get hold of and when they are available they’re at the higher end of the price range.)

*Disclaimer: I'm not a small hatchery expert--I buy opportunistically from the local auction and make planned purchases of cheap hatchery layers.

I do know from looking at small breeder websites that most of them don't sex their birds. Some will grow out pullets and sell them.

I have no idea why lavender is so expensive. It's sort of ridiculous. Blue (good, Andalusian-type, not the pale stuff) is prettier anyway (personal opinion.)

 

[Cluck Kent]

I am a co-owner of Carolina Farms and Hatchery. We're a non-profit farm in South Carolina. We like to consider ourselves a no-kill hatchery, which short answer basically means we only do straight run chicks unless its something that is sex-linked or auto-sexing. We just don't have the means to sex chicks like these large hatcheries anyway. It also keeps us from having to deal with an abundance of unwanted roosters. Any that we do end up with, get raised and processed for our meat and egg donations.

 

[Joeschooks]

I am a co-owner of Carolina Farms and Hatchery. We're a non-profit farm in South Carolina. We like to consider ourselves a no-kill hatchery, which short answer basically means we only do straight run chicks unless its something that is sex-linked or auto-sexing. We just don't have the means to sex chicks like these large hatcheries anyway. It also keeps us from having to deal with an abundance of unwanted roosters. Any that we do end up with, get raised and processed for our meat and egg donations.

Thanks for your comments Cluck. I’d love to have your job!
When I came back to having chickens I got my hens at POL from a local poultry farm. This farm sells all sorts of breeds and hybrids at POL but I’ve never seen them advertising chicks or roosters. I can’t imagine it’s viable for them to raise roosters alongside the pullets so I wonder how they separate them. I also know that they supply a couple of small poultry retailers with chicks - these retailers then grow them out and also advertise POL hens. Again these small sellers never seem to advertise the boys. I can only imagine that the farmer must be a very proficient vent sexer.