Easy! 98% way to sex chicks.

[mhamilton]

So I Bought 7 chicks From our feed store, supposed to be all pullets, and then I bought 5 straight run chicks in hopes for A roo, now all chicks are approx the same age, all hatched within days of each other. I told the lady I got the 5 from I wanted a Roo, and she picked them according to their tail feathers. She said the ones with longer tail feathers are "usually" males and the shorter tail feathers Are "usually" females. So i got 2 with longer feathers, and 3 with shorter feathers. Now when i got home, i looked at my 7 feed store pullets, only to find all my original chicks have longer feathers., so in this instance, I sure hope she was wrong! I'm including a picture of two chicks from the straight run batch, one on the left is shorter tail feathers, one on the right is the longer feathers. All the straight Run chicks are the same pure bred Blue laced red Wyandotte.

 

[AmySG]

I really don't know much, but from what I've read, for some breeds that would be the other way around - the females often feather out first.

 

[AmySG]

Of course, I bought mine from the feed store, too, and I can't guarantee they are even the same age. I have one who is definitely looking roo-ish, who has lots of feathers compared to one which is obviously a roo, but may just be older because it is also a lot bigger.

Personally, in my very limited experience, I am going with the eyes. My ones which seem to be heading down the 'road to roo' all have bigger eyes

 

[mhamilton]

I sure hope so, now that I'v been speculating That i have more Roos than hens I've noticed all the chicks with the longer tails have larger, more pronounced Combs. And all the chicks (just 3 out of twelve) that have the smaller tail feathers have no Combs at all, rather little indentations.

So this picture is of one of the feed store "pullets" which has the longer tail feathers.

 

[mhamilton]

I really don't know much, but from what I've read, for some breeds that would be the other way around - the females often feather out first.  

I sure hope your right, I didn't sleep much last night, all I heard was 9 roosters crowing......

 

[Pele]

I just think that if there were such a simple way to accurately sex chicks then the hatcheries wouldn't pay their professionally-trained vent-sexers the high wages that they do. The same thing goes for causing eggs to hatch out a certain sex depending on the temperature of the incubator, if that were true (and it is true for some reptile species) then the hatcheries would only need to adjust their thermostats.

And I think it's unkind-- especially concerning batches of chicks sold at feed stores -- to attempt to sex them by the method described above. There seems to be much scope for mishandling and injury there.

I agree 10000% percent. So much mishandling and risking the chicks, all in the name of lazily skipping the study of poultry gender traits. It makes me sad. All we have to do is research, and look at pictures enough until we get a good feeling for spotting gender traits. Instead, they get held by their faces till they stop struggling.

 

[mhamilton]

Well, I wrote down all my predictions On sex, and the descriptions of each chick to not get confused, I'll update as they mature, they are only just barely 2 weeks old.

 

[Sunny Side Up]

That's very smart, let us know your results. You can also mark the chicks with permanent marker or something like Blue-Kote, one side for boys, one for girls, and see if your predictions are correct.

 

[mhamilton]

Ok, so at 3 weeks old, my 2 silver laced Wyandottes are clearly going in different directions, (easiest to tell in these two because they are the only two that are the same color) One is growing a miniature comb and it's turning pinkish, reddish in comparison to the other which has no growth or color change. And this one, who I'm sure is my roo, had the shorter tail feathers than the other. So i guess that means the Males feather slower than the females? (in this breed anyway...).
However I've come across people saying (again, specific to the Wyandotte breed) that slow feathering is a gene that produces better lace on the feathers, which could vary bird to bird depending on genetics.

"if it crows.... Rooster
If it lays.... Hen"

My grandma's sexing advice when I asked her...

 

[AmySG]

Ah, but that takes the fun out of guessing, and makes us have to wait wait wait!

Patience may be a virtue, but trying to predict the future is fun. Besides, so many posters have said how pullets will crow too, if there isn't anyone else around willing to do it. Makes sense to me. Without the male hormones of a rooster inhibiting, at least one hen will increase male hormone production. It is just about the internal balance of hormones, after all.

My totally unscientific choice is still the eyes. Those with bigger looking eyes

compared to their skulls are be roos