Vent Sexing Questions?

[wisdom_seeker]

I have a book on Sexing all type of fowl. The book says that you should vent sex the chicks 12-36 hours after hatching. Does this really matter? Can you vent sex older chicks?

Also the diagram in the books makes it look like you need to open the vent to about 3/8 of an inch!!! It does not say to open it up that much butt maybe that is what you do? I really don't want to tear anything down there.

So far I am really good at making Poo come out but I don't see anything that looks like a roo.

I only have 4 chicks right now that I hatched but I can't imagine that they are all female.

I have followed the directions but I'm not sure If I only caused a prolapse? The chicks return to normal just fine when I let them go.

Not sure if I need to do more stretching and less pushing?

Thanks for any replys.

 

[Neil Grassbaugh]

What you really need to do is stop hurting these chicks.

Vent sexing is somewhat traumatizing to chicks and may even cause death. At hatcheries chicks, and poults, are re-examined for quality a few hours after vent sexing by trained professionals.

Professional vent sexers train on hundreds of thousands of chicks under the watch of instructors who have sexed hundreds of millions of chicks.

You can bet that the net results of what you are learning from that book will be about 50% accuracy. That is the same as guessing.

 

[Brunty_Farms]

Vent sexing is somewhat traumatizing to chicks and may even cause death. At hatcheries chicks, and poults, are re-examined for quality a few hours after vent sexing by trained professionals.

After vent sexing the are packaged and shipped, they aren't re-examined.... Some do die but I've only seen a few die out of 20,000 chicks. After the sexers sex the birds, they are done.... they either go home or off to another hatchery. They have no part in packaging chicks, most of the people that pack the chikcs are untrained kids out of highschool or immigrants looking for work on a visa.

I admit it is something that takes skill but with time you will be fine. I wouldn't keep vent sexing them though. Try it once or twice and right down what you think. If your right than great... if not try on the next chicks. It's going to take some time as it's not an easy task to learn.​

 

[Neil Grassbaugh]

Bad sentance structure on my part. Sorry.

The vent sexers do not do the QC exam on the sexed birds, the packers do. Those are the people who "pick" the orders.

This is the process at a hatchery-
Take Hatch Off - means the hatchlings are removed from the hatching trays and rough counted. Hatchlings that are observed to be defective are discarded.

Birds that are to be vent sexed (expensive) are sorted for quality before they go to the sexer.

The final sorting (culling) is done by the people who count the orders before shipping.

I have somewhat more experience at this than 20,000 chicks.
By a few hundred million over some 57 years.

 

[wisdom_seeker]

Quote:
If you don't want to help me then what you need to do is mind your own business!

I did not do enough to hurt the chicks. That is why I am posting on this site. So that I do not hurt any! I am not the kind of person to "leave it to the professionals" for most things! At some point I WILL get accuracy.

If you are a Professional vent sexer then I would ask that you answer my questions. If you don't then I would ask you to just not reply.

 

[PineBurrowPeeps]

This is OT but why is this in the meat bird section?


Wisdom I wish you much luck with your learning to vent sex. I can vent sex ducklings with great results, you're looking for different things there though!

 

[wisdom_seeker]

Quote:
The vent sexing is needed for caponizing. My thought was that the meat bird section would be a "safe" place to ask such questions. In other words I wanted to stay away from those who have chickens for pets. I also thought that this would fall under the ETC part of Meat Birds ETC link.

After reading the book some more and remembering what I saw; I am now convinced that all my chicks are female. (4) Now only time will tell the truth.

The book also says that if you are going to make a mistake, that you will tend to consider a male a female. For me that is the safe way to go. The last thing I would want to do is to cut into female birds for no reason.

 

[wisdom_seeker]

Any answer to this one?

The book says that you should vent sex the chicks 12-36 hours after hatching. Does this really matter? Can you vent sex older chicks?

 

[Brunty_Farms]

Yes the age does matter, I remember hearing one of the sexers talk about it when I was asking him questions. I guess the older they get the harder it becomes and the more likely to hurt them. Don't hold me to it though. I think it's more of an accuracy thing when they are younger.

 

[warmfuzzies]

I am also interested in this. I tried it once on dicks when i was younger, and I thought I had two hens and a drake but they were all drakes.