When Do Chicks' Combs Start to Develop?

[rosemarythyme]

Question... How accurate is chick sexing? Like, say, 80%?

Which form of sexing? Vent sexing is 80-85%. If you're talking feather sexing, color sexing, etc., that'll vary wildly depending on the exact breed and how good the breeder is about keeping certain traits.

 

[Devyn Nagy]

Which form of sexing? Vent sexing is 80-85%. If you're talking feather sexing, color sexing, etc., that'll vary wildly depending on the exact breed and how good the breeder is about keeping certain traits.

Well, rosemarythyme, I honestly don't know which kind of sexing. I recently got chicks from Tractor Supply Co., and I just wanted to know what the risk is of having a rooster. I got Golden Laced Wyandottes, and I don't know what hatchery they came from.

 

[NatJ]

Most hatcheries guarantee 90% accuracy for sexing.

From Tractor Supply Co your chance of getting a rooster will be higher--they seem to have trouble keeping the right labels with the right chicks. So even if the hatchery sexed them correctly, you might come home with something different than what you paid for

It must be hard for the people working there--so many kinds of chicks do look alike. And there's no label on the chick itself, to let you sort them out again. But it is very frustrating for the people who buy mis-labelled chicks!

 

[rosemarythyme]

Well, rosemarythyme, I honestly don't know which kind of sexing. I recently got chicks from Tractor Supply Co., and I just wanted to know what the risk is of having a rooster. I got Golden Laced Wyandottes, and I don't know what hatchery they came from.

As NatJ noted above, TSC would've sourced from a hatchery that vent sexed. I've read 80, 85, 90% on vent sexing. However TSC is rather infamous for selling mismarked chicks - it's not that the hatchery sexed wrong, it's that the chicks are placed in the wrong bins or bins are marked incorrectly (like saying pullets, when they were straight run).

Hopefully yours were marked correctly!