Sexing Chicks

[Jean]

Has anyone out there learned how to sex chicks?  I have the book and a handy lighted magnifying glass as I feel I can promote my birds better if I can sex them.

It looks very difficult as it shows 6-8 diffferent types of \"males\" and \"females\".  

Anyhoo, if any one has any experiences they want to share or comments I would appreciate it.

Jean

[John]

Now you know why few attempt it.  

[bantamhill]

I tried and gave up!

Michael

[Guest]

If you are going to sex birds, feather sexing is a viable way. The only problem with feather sexing is that you have to have a male line that is rapid feathering and a female line that slow feathering. You would have to breed the slow feathering gene into your female line. Many hatcheries use feather sexing.

Vent sexing takes a lot of practice. I personally would like to learn how to vent sex but unless you have access to hundreds of chicks it would be difficult to learn.

Where did you get the book? I would love to get a copy.

Tim

[Jean]

One of my friends bought it from McMurray Hatchery....

Thanks for the encouragement......

Jean

[Guest]

Thanks Jean. I ordered the book today.

Tim

[Jean]

Well, me and my friend sexed some small chicks and some older chicks today.  I feel real bad for the little guys, being turned upside down for so long......

We toe punched the ones we thought were males so we can tell how well we did in another couple months.

It really helps to have a lighted magnifying mirror.  I\'ll bump up this post in a couple months and let you know how we did.

Jean

[Jean]

We only made two mistakes on sexing chicks in February.  Yeah!!

But I have another question.  I am noticing the feather differences on my silver chicks and was wondering if that is a good way to sex them when the first feathers are coming in.  I have noticed that what I think are females have the salmon color on the breast and the males seem to just be black/brown and white at the present time.

This is my first batch of silvers so I am not up to date on the color standards on them.  Also one of my \"males\" seems to have some brownish red feathers on the top of the wings.  Is this acceptable or should he be put aside as a cull?

Thanks alot,

Jean

[Guest]

with the silvers you have it right, the ones with the salmon breasts are pullets...make for an easier time sexing them

this year we hatched out a mere 6 chicks..because we had the incubator full of turkey eggs...but all 6 turned out to be pullets!! which is what we wanted sinse their mommas are gitting a bit older, time to bring in some future replacements. **my son was shown how to \"sex eggs\"..and we still don;t realy put much faith in it..but so far it has seemed to work out just about how he thinks it will from te eggs we set.

[Guest]

Greetings all,

I have 3 chickens that are about 10 weeks old. Only one is of questionable sex, and s/he\'s a silver Ameracauna. The chick came from a feed store that stocks hatchlings from a reputable local hatchery and this bird does fit the ABC standard but I\'m just not quite sure it\'s a pullet and not a cockerel. S/he has much more white and barring, and more of a comb than the hen in the photos section, and I\'m noticing some green and purple sheen in some of the black areas of the hackles and tail feathers, but not in the wings. The hackles don\'t seem to be any pointier than the hen in the photo. The tail is slightly curlier than my other two chickens (other breeds), but does not actually look like the rooster in the photos, either. At 10 weeks, I\'m not hearing any crowing, and I thought I read that cockerels start crowing around 5-6 weeks.  

It\'s entirely possible that this is an Easter egger, and not a full-bred Ameracauna, and if so, how would I tell hen from roo then?

I have pics I can forward to anyone interested, but they\'re too big to post.

Thanks much,
Anna

[Guest]

whoops! my bad--just caught my errant spelling of \"ameraucana,\" newbie error....

I\'m pretty sure the feed store/hatchery both spelled it right, FWIW.

[John]

If you reduce the pics down to under 35 kb you can post them or email them to me and I\'ll post them.  At 10 weeks you should be able to sex a silver be it\'s color/pattern.

[Guest]

Okay...here\'s a couple of pics I just took. S/he looks more like the rooster than the hen in the photo section, but her breast is the same color as her back, mostly white with some barring, and her fluff is all dove grey. It\'s cloudy, so my camera wouldn\'t pick up the gloss in the tail, and the hackle feathers are round at the tips, unlike the roo in the photo.

[Mike Gilbert]

Rooster.   Not a good representation of silver.    Mixed genetics on this one.  

[Guest]

Anything to the myth on sexing bantams, they say it can cause prolaps on the bantam breeds once mature??

 From what i herd that is the main reason these big hatcheries dont sex the bantams..

Charlie