The string method...fact or fiction?

Pet Duck Boy

Songster
10 Years
Dec 12, 2009
1,373
22
161
Orlando, FL
Try this old wives tail on your chicks or chickens, tell me your results.
Tie a ring to a piece of string somewhere close to 12 inches long. Dangle it close, but not touching, to the chick. It should move on its own and swing back and forth in a straight line for boys/roos/cockerals. And it will swing in a circle for a girl/hen/pullet. Is this true? False? I tried it and it somewhat confirmed my suspicion. It said I had 6 hens and 2 cockerals. My first "cockeral" was my very unfriendly white EE chick. It always hated being picked up, and would fight to get away. Sometimes it would peck vicously when cornered. My second was my little runt, it was obviously slow to get feathers, though it DID infact have them by 1 week. They were just very small, definatley not as fast feathering as the others. I tried 3 times, hanging the ring and string over each of them. It gave me the same exact answers, over and over. I tried it for my sister, circle. My male dog, back and forth. My duck, circle. I made my sister try it on the chicks, same results. Does this really work? I hear it did for most people, and others just don't believe it or had wrong results. I'm not saying I really believe it, but it's caught my eye and I'm going to watch the 2 "cockerals" and see if they really do turn out roosters. Who knows?
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What's your opinion on this method?
 
Sounds like a variation on the "wedding ring on a string over a pregnant belly to determine the baby's gender". The string is influenced imperceptibly by the person holding it, whether they realize it or not. If you believe it is a girl, without realizing it you will cause the string to turn in the direction that indicates girl. It would be easy enough to test it by having someone who knows nothing about chickens hold the string and/or tell them you think a pullet is a cockerel and if they believe you believe it, lo and behold, the string will indicate "cockerel".
 
I had always believed my runt was a hen, but now I'm not so sure. I had my sister try this, and she could careless about chickens and had no idea what she was doing. It gave the same results. So I'm not sure? Maybe your right? I'm wondering about the results other people who have tried this on unsexed chicks had.
 
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I tried this string woth a magnet.
Instead of me holding the string I used my paper towl holder...
The magnet did not move either way.
I'm with HEchicken, it's the person's hand that moves the string
 

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