The Ring/Nail Test Experiment (Just for fun)

[Knighstar679]

I hope the DNA test is wrong on at least 1 for you.

My friend keeps telling me I have bad luck in hatching ducks, because I have ended up with far more males the last two years than females.

 

[Knighstar679]

News on the gender front. Of my Aztecs that in got dna sex testing and came up all male. I am hearing two ducks starting to quack! One more noticeable than the other. But it gives me hope that I may really have some girls. It also means that I am also not going to use that lab again.

 

[mamabear6810]

So there are all kinds of old wives tales on how to tell the sex of a chicken, one of them being the ring or nail test. For this test you tie a metal ring or nail to the end of a string and dangle it above the chick (or duckling, turkey, etc) and wait for it to either move in a straight line or in a circle. The site I found and the way I have done it before says if it goes in a circle it is a male and if it goes in a line it is a female, although there are many sites out there that say the opposite.

Now I mentioned above that I have tried this before. When I did it on the first 9 chicks I ever had at age 3 weeks, it guessed them all right. However, when I tried it on day old straight run chicks at the farm store (hoping to get pullets)....it was really inaccurate ending up with 3 roosters out of 6 chicks. But this got me thinking the other day, why was it so inaccurate on the day old chicks. So I did a mini experiment. My theory was that the chick that I was holding just couldn't produce enough physical magnetism to control the metal item on the string and that the metal item was actually picking up my personal physical magnetism. My experiment: to hold a baby chick in my hand and perform the test and then put the baby chick in a plastic cup and re perform the test. To my surprise, my metal washer that I was using, moved in a line while I was holding the chick (female) but then moved in a circle (male) when I put the same chick into a plastic cup and re did the test. I did the same test on more of my 4 day old chicks and found some that tested a line both times. So from that test, I have concluded that if this test actually works, that a persons personal physical magnetism can override the chicks physical magnetism.

Then....my daughter told me I should try the test on unhatched eggs. So I did. And to my surprise, the metal object moved in either a circle or a line. I had 1 egg that was a late quitter, so I tried the test on that egg as well....and the metal object did not move at all.

So, just for fun, I have decided to do a little experiment. I am going to number my eggs and perform the test on each one of them on day 14. I will write either an M or F on the egg as well as my spreadsheet. I will then divide the eggs in my hatcher M on one side of a barrier and F on the other side (I'll try to contain each egg individually if I can as well). Once the chicks hatch and are dried off I will use rubber leg bands to mark each chick for identification and then perform the test at 1 day old and 3 weeks and write down the results. Then we will see what they end up actually being and see how accurate this test can be!

I'm excited to see what happens! Here is the spreadsheet I made up to track it all.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1wgv50E8N1WQhkJqXm4EgTCNFWMg9LVe09SP8oTLqcQs/edit?usp=sharing

I know this is old, but i cant understand your chart and was curious if you switched them, cir le is female and line is male, would it be more accurate!?
We spent a good chunk of the day testing on people and chicks and every time the string went in a circle(and usually a lot of movement) it was a human girl or a pullet and a line was a human boy or roo(didnt move much but it did move)
We tested on humans to confirm which is which before we did chickens. It got all of our known gender chickens correct! We used it on some younger ones but it started raining and my way of recording was a wet erase marker....in the rain. Lol. So we will try again tomorrow hopefully so i can check accuracy later on as well. Our chicks are from about 5 days up to 16 weeks come thursday (these are guessing ages since TSC has no idea how old they are.

 

[yakitori]

ooh, I want to try this on my 6 week old chicks! Would they be too old?

 

[mamabear6810]

ooh, I want to try this on my 6 week old chicks! Would they be too old?

I think older is better. I have 83 chicks and we did it on the 3+ weekers up to the almost 16 weekers...not the tiny babies. I believe we have 32 or 36 'confirmed' sexes and it got them all right.
Strimg about 18 inches afyer it is loioed through whatever you use(we use a safety pin) then stop it over the cuck and wait until the pattern is clear and have fin! Be sure to record the findings so you can come back and report.
Circle oattern is female and line is male. Do it over a few humans fjrst so you see the difference in the two patterns!!

 

[NatJ]

ooh, I want to try this on my 6 week old chicks! Would they be too old?

You can try it at any age.

If you already know the gender of the chicks, you might find that it correctly identifies them.
But for people who do not know the gender, and who check this way, it is often wrong.

So if I actually want to know the gender of chicks, I use other methods (like looking at their combs & wattles, or looking at the color of sexlinks).

It won't hurt the chicks, so it's fine to have fun with-- I just wouldn't trust it to be correct about the gender.

 

[yakitori]

I think older is better. I have 83 chicks and we did it on the 3+ weekers up to the almost 16 weekers...not the tiny babies. I believe we have 32 or 36 'confirmed' sexes and it got them all right.
Strimg about 18 inches afyer it is loioed through whatever you use(we use a safety pin) then stop it over the cuck and wait until the pattern is clear and have fin! Be sure to record the findings so you can come back and report.
Circle oattern is female and line is male. Do it over a few humans fjrst so you see the difference in the two patterns!!

i will! this is fun, haha

If you already know the gender of the chicks, you might find that it correctly identifies them.
But for people who do not know the gender, and who check this way, it is often wrong.

So if I actually want to know the gender of chicks, I use other methods (like looking at their combs & wattles, or looking at the color of sexlinks).

It won't hurt the chicks, so it's fine to have fun with-- I just wouldn't trust it to be correct about the gender.

Thanks! I don’t trust this 100% ofcourse, it’s all fun and games and superstition! I also don’t quite trust tsc when they tell me a chick is a pullet...

 

[yakitori]

Can I dangle the string from an overhead pole instead of using my hands?

Am I allowed to hold the chick? they stay still better when cupped...

 

[mamabear6810]

Can I dangle the string from an overhead pole instead of using my hands?

Am I allowed to hold the chick? they stay still better when cupped...

We held in hands but im sure cup is fine. And i dont see why not to use a pole. Let me know how it works! And maybe try both ways and see if it comes out any different!?!?

 

[yakitori]

We held in hands but im sure cup is fine. And i dont see why not to use a pole. Let me know how it works! And maybe try both ways and see if it comes out any different!?!?

Well it worked for my cat
(using 4in needle)