Foot sexing baby chicks

[rittert3]

So I've seen this done in a commercial setting with leghorns so it must be pretty reliable just wondering if anybody has tryed it at home and if it can be used with other fowl (quail, pheasant, turkeys, guineas, ducks...) For those of you that don't know what this is I will explain the best I can. You pick up a freshly hatched chick hold it by one foot and if they let the other leg hang it's a pullet, if they hold the other leg up it's a cockerl. Like I said I saw this in a commercails setting... all of the "cockerls" were immediatly sorted out of the hatching trays and culled. This place hatched ~20,000 commercial leghorns a week, so I would think it would be pretty reliable.

 

[sourland]

Where/what was the commercial setting that you saw this take place?

 

[Kevin565]

Thats a old wives tale sadly. Its been disproven many times. Vent sexing is the most reliable method

 

[rittert3]

They are a subcontracted hatchery and grow out opperation for replacment comm. layers. I can't say who or where it might get me in trouble.

I can say I was employed by the company for a VERY short time but I got sick and didn't like it anyway. I really hated to see that amount of birds culled especially in the manner that they were. ETA: If that truely is a wifes tale I would hate to know how many perfectly good pullets they grind up.

 

[Kevin565]

Im glad you dont slander peoples/ companies reputation. Im just suprised a professional would endorse.something that dosent have any proof to the best of my knowledge.

 

[rittert3]

I also signed a contract with my application about not being affiliated with animal rights groups (kind of made me want to be, after the fact). The company was full of BS and trust me I want to slander them but can't.

 

[sourland]

With great trepidatiion, I did a search on "foot sexing chicks" with no hits - I figured that this was probably another of those 50 % accurate methods.

 

[Kevin565]

Thats a very strange condition. The company does sound very shady however I understand.that your hands are tied. Sadly many pullets had to be wrongly killed. I did this experiment in a feed store back in spring. It was fairly easy to tell because all the chicks were sex linked.

 

[sourland]

Quote:
And what were your results, Kevin?

 

[rittert3]

If it's true they probably grind up around 250,000 perfectly healthy leghorn pullets a year, what an economical waste. I really hated to see chicks manufactured like cigarettes or lightbulbs

, and the company still claimed to be an agriculteral bussiness and use farm in their name,

.