sexing chicks

[Guest]

How are Ameraucana chicks sexed?

[Guest]

Short of vent sexing, which is a pretty specialized skill, I don\'t think there\'s any special way to sex an Ameraucana chick. As far as I know they aren\'t sex-linked like Marans or commercial layer crosses. Could be wrong though, but don\'t think you can, short of waiting for them to grow up and feather out (so you can check things like hackle feather shape and so on.)

[Guest]

How do people guarantee (90% usually) sex?

[John]

Ameraucana chickens aren\'t sexed any differently than other chickens, except for sex-linked varieties as noted by Pathfinders above.
You could get a book on sexing poultry from Cutler\'s Supply, http://www.cutlersupply.com/cgi-bin/store/agora.cgi?cart_id=8113805.16284*XT78T&p_id=0065&xm=on&ppinc=display.

SEXING ALL FOWL, BABY CHICKS, GAME BIRDS
(Click above to see image) BK-05 - Loyl Stromberg, 96 pages. Well Illustrated.
$ 7.95

[Guest]

Rose,

Some hatcheries use feather sexing to determine the sex of the chicks. Some birds carry the sex linked gene for fast feathering (k+)and others carry the gene for slow feathering (K). When the chicks hatch, a fast feathering chick will have longer primary (wing) feathers than a slow feathering chick. If a person crosses a slow feathering hen with a fast feathering rooster all of the male chicks will be slow feathering and the females will be fast feathering. All they have to do is look at the wing feathers to determine the sex of the chick.

Rooster

[Guest]

Thanks, I know many different ways of sexing and needed to know which method is most commonly used with Amerancanas.

[Guest]

Rose,

Slow feathering or vent sexing are the only two kinds of sexing a person would use to determine the sex of an ameraucana day old chick.  Color sexing using silver or gold and  barring  would produce birds that are  the wrong color.

Rooster