Can you feather sex Ameraucanas?

[Guest]

I have a 12 year old boy, who wants to buy chicks from me, and insists we can sex them at day old.

I know how to feather sex, but are Ameraucanas able to be sexed successfully that way?

Sue

[Mike Gilbert]

I know of no way to feather sex chicks when day old.
I know there is supposed to be something about the feather structure of the wing feathers, but never paid much attention to it.   It seems to me if it were that easy all the hatcheries would be using that method.

[grisaboy]

Feather sexing is used by many hatcheries, especially in the broiler and layer industries.  Like any other sex linked gene you have to set up your matings properly for it too work.  In this case the short (slow) feathering is dominant to the long (fast) feathering gene.  So you have to breed a long feathered male kk over a short feathered female K-.  The resulting males will be Kk and since short feathering is dominant, they will have short primary feathers.  The females will be k- which will result in long (fast) growing primaries.  
Here is a link with pictures of day old chicks being feather sexed.
http://animalsciences.missouri.edu/reprod/ReproTech/Feathersex/sld001.htm

I don\'t think anybody in the exhibition poultry business is setting up pens for feather sexing.  

Curtis

[John]

are Ameraucanas able to be sexed

Curtis is referring to hybrid chickens which are not a breed of chickens.  Ameraucanas, Leghorns, Cochins, etc. are breeds.  
Barred varieties of standard breeds are the only day-old chicks that I know of that can be sexed by phenotype/feathers (down).

[Mike Gilbert]

What I was referring to was a theory being bandied about that pullet primaries shortly after hatching will be longer than those of cockerels.   I can\'t lay my hands on the source anymore, but it was not referring to hybrid matings utilizing the K series (slow feathering) genes.  That was the theory I expressed doubts about.  

[Beth C]

The first year I sold chicks I was amazed at the number of people who showed up with things to wave over them, and a million different ways of holding them, all sure-fire ways of sexing, I was told. They all left confident that they\'d selected only pullets but the birds that were still here at maturity were an even split.  

Some of these wives\'s tales are just plain bizarre, others seem to have originated from credible information that got distorted along the way. Sounds like this kid has heard about feather-sexing but doesn\'t understand the genetics behind it.

[jerryse]

There is a way to sex striped chicks as in silver and light brown.I recently ran across this but have not had a chance to try it.Females have darker and more defined head and back stripes and darker stripe that passes across the center of the eye.I hope to test this out.I have tried to vent sex day olds but all rear ends look the same to me.

[Cloverleaf Farm]

There is a way to sex striped chicks as in silver and light brown.I recently ran across this but have not had a chance to try it.Females have darker and more defined head and back stripes and darker stripe that passes across the center of the eye.I hope to test this out.I have tried to vent sex day olds but all rear ends look the same to me.

I\'ve done that 100% with Welsummers...it\'s pretty cool.

[Beth C]

There is a way to sex striped chicks as in silver and light brown.I recently ran across this but have not had a chance to try it.Females have darker and more defined head and back stripes and darker stripe that passes across the center of the eye.I hope to test this out.I have tried to vent sex day olds but all rear ends look the same to me.

I found some info on how to vent sex - video, detailed pictures, etc. so I tried it, too. Came to the same conclusion you did - don\'t know what these guys are looking at, but they have better eyesight than I do because I couldn\'t see any difference.

Really cool about the striped chicks!