Seeing newly hatched chicks is an exciting experience. Whether you used an incubator at home, let hens take the job, or purchased a peeping box of fluffiness from an online hatchery, it can be difficult to determine a chick's gender.
If you are dealing with adult birds, it is a lot easier to tell a rooster from a hen, but there are a few strategies you can utilize in order to reduce the guesswork involved in determining the gender of your flock members.
The following tips will help you distinguish between a hen and a rooster.
Chicks are fluffy and covered in down during their first week of life. You may, however, observe some feathers emerging after the first week. They will be small, and may not be noticed right away. Almost all of the down will be gone by week four or five, replaced by those delicate feathers.
In the seventh to eighth week of their lives, your chicks will undergo their first partial molt. During this time, they will develop new feathers and start developing their own pecking order within the flock. Between week five and week fifteen, your chickens will be in their most awkward phase.
It is referred to by some as the teenage stage, while others call it the dinosaur stage - they look like mini velociraptors! Either way, it will be quite entertaining to watch them at this point, especially as you begin to notice their distinct individual behaviors.
You will begin to see your chickens' adult feathers in week thirteen. If you haven't been able to distinguish your hens and roosters yet, you will be able to do so by weeks sixteen to twenty. Upon approaching or petting your pullets, they might squat, and your cockerels might begin to crow.
Obviously, there are differences based on the individual chicken as well as the breed in these natural milestones. This should serve as a general guideline on what to watch for as far as development is concerned.
All male chickens younger than one year are called cockerels. They become roosters after a year. A female chicken is a pullet up until the age of one year, then she becomes a hen.
There are, however, a number of good reasons to choose straight-run chickens. Straight-run chickens have not been sexed. The hatchery workers have no idea what gender you will get - the odds of getting males or females are about 50/50.
Even though sexing chicks is mostly dependable, you should keep in mind that most methods of sexing have a success rate of no more than 90%. In other words, for every ten chickens you get, there's a good chance you'll get one of the wrong gender. Hatcheries do have some insurance in place for this type of situation. If too many birds are the wrong sex, you can get some of your money back.
It is almost always cheaper to buy straight-run chickens than sexed ones. The reason why this happens is that sexed birds are usually in higher demand, and the process of sexing chicks can be dangerous, so hatcheries avoid sexing chicks if they can avoid it.
It is possible to cause serious injuries or even death to the chicken when vent sexing is done incorrectly. When it comes to learning how to vent sex your birds, you should receive proper training. During this process, you must expel feces from the cloaca of the bird in order to get a perspective of its unique sexual characteristics.
It is important to remember that vent sexing is not 100% accurate, despite its high risk level. Even the best and most experienced vent sexers still make mistakes, so it might not be the best option when it comes to sexing your birds.
The method also works only with first-generation sex links. The determination of gender will be less reliable if a sex link is matched up with a sex link. This method works, however, well for certain breeds.
As an example, black sex links are created by breeding a solid-colored rooster and a barred female. The resulting cockerels will have white spots on their heads. It is often done with breeds with cuckoo or barring patterns, such as Barred Rocks and Dominiques.
Several other breeds, such as Welsummers, have chicks with dorsal stripes. Unlike males who have no head patch and lines that are less noticeable, females have distinctive lines and blotches that appear like triangular patches. Breeds such as these are known as autosexing breeds.
Roosters and hens look pretty different, and even people who haven't handled chickens much can tell the difference. As part of their evolution, roosters are made to attract attention. A rooster is flashy in every way, designed to both seduce his hens and deter predators from his ladies (who are much less ornately dressed).
Roosters and hens differ greatly in several key ways.
The wattles of a rooster are typically much redder than those of a hen. This has to do with his desire to appear fit and healthy in front of his ladies. The combs and wattles of roosters often become redder and more developed at a younger age than those of hens.
Roosters are usually more vibrantly colored than hens, in general. In order to avoid being vulnerable to predators, hens display a more subtle appearance.
The saddle feathers are another important difference between roosters and hens. The saddle feathers are only found in roosters. They are generally pointed and long and start around the middle of the back. In addition, they provide a sleek overall appearance as they cascade down around the tail.
Roosters, however, generally have larger, stronger, and more robust feet and legs than do hens. Even before the spurs form on these legs, you may be able to see buds developing where the spurs will later appear.
Essentially, the purpose of the spurs is to project health and strength. However, note that hens can also grow spurs as they age, although they may not be as pronounced as those on mature roosters.
Hens tend to be more timid. In response to threats or a startle, they might crouch down and remain quiet.
When your chickens begin to feather out, you may notice subtle behavioral changes early on. For example, roosters often feather in patches while hens feather more uniformly.
The same does not apply to all breeds or even to all chicken groups. Remember that if you have a flock consisting only of hens, one hen (or a few hens, depending on how big your flock is) will automatically assume a rooster-like authority position. Like a rooster, she might act as a leader by gathering everyone together when there is a threat.
Later on, you'll come to recognize some differences in sexual behavior. You will notice that hens squat when your hand is placed above them, especially if there are no roosters in the flock. This indicates that they are sexually mature. When your hen starts laying eggs or exhibiting broody behaviors, you also know she is a hen!
When your rooster begins crowing, you will know he is indeed a rooster.
Breda chickens, for instance, are a unique breed that can be remarkably difficult to sex. They lack any comb, and hens often have wattles - and roosters always do. They grow slowly and take time to exhibit noticeable sexual differences. You can only reliably sex a Breda fowl when its saddle, sickle, and hackle feathers appear. In other words, you may need at least six months before you can tell hens from roosters!
The Silkies are also hard to sex - in fact, most breeders are unable to distinguish roosters from hens until the roosters start crowing (and the females start laying eggs).
Among the easiest chicken breeds to sex are:
It does not matter how many guesses you make, but the only 100% foolproof method to tell if you have hens or roosters is to wait until they start crowing or producing eggs. Usually, that's between 12 and 30 weeks old.
However, you need not worry - there are some breeds that mature earlier, as well as individuals who tend to show their personalities very early in life. Until then, enjoy the fun stages of chickhood and young adulthood while they're young. After all, they're only little once.
Learn how to incubate eggs, take care of hatchlings, and properly care for brand new fluffy chicks HERE.
Further Reading:
If you are dealing with adult birds, it is a lot easier to tell a rooster from a hen, but there are a few strategies you can utilize in order to reduce the guesswork involved in determining the gender of your flock members.
The following tips will help you distinguish between a hen and a rooster.
Understanding Chick Development
It is important to know how and when a chick develops before you can really tell a rooster from a hen. You'll have a better idea of what to expect and what to look for.Chicks are fluffy and covered in down during their first week of life. You may, however, observe some feathers emerging after the first week. They will be small, and may not be noticed right away. Almost all of the down will be gone by week four or five, replaced by those delicate feathers.
In the seventh to eighth week of their lives, your chicks will undergo their first partial molt. During this time, they will develop new feathers and start developing their own pecking order within the flock. Between week five and week fifteen, your chickens will be in their most awkward phase.
It is referred to by some as the teenage stage, while others call it the dinosaur stage - they look like mini velociraptors! Either way, it will be quite entertaining to watch them at this point, especially as you begin to notice their distinct individual behaviors.
You will begin to see your chickens' adult feathers in week thirteen. If you haven't been able to distinguish your hens and roosters yet, you will be able to do so by weeks sixteen to twenty. Upon approaching or petting your pullets, they might squat, and your cockerels might begin to crow.
Obviously, there are differences based on the individual chicken as well as the breed in these natural milestones. This should serve as a general guideline on what to watch for as far as development is concerned.
All male chickens younger than one year are called cockerels. They become roosters after a year. A female chicken is a pullet up until the age of one year, then she becomes a hen.
What Are Straight Run Chickens?
You will have the option of purchasing sexed or straight-run chicks when you purchase chicks from a hatchery. Having only hens or only roosters (or sexed birds, in other words) is a good idea for many reasons. The rooster won't be much help if you are trying to raise laying hens (since a hen can lay an edible egg without fertilization). When you raise meat birds, roosters tend to grow out faster, so they are always more desirable.There are, however, a number of good reasons to choose straight-run chickens. Straight-run chickens have not been sexed. The hatchery workers have no idea what gender you will get - the odds of getting males or females are about 50/50.
Even though sexing chicks is mostly dependable, you should keep in mind that most methods of sexing have a success rate of no more than 90%. In other words, for every ten chickens you get, there's a good chance you'll get one of the wrong gender. Hatcheries do have some insurance in place for this type of situation. If too many birds are the wrong sex, you can get some of your money back.
It is almost always cheaper to buy straight-run chickens than sexed ones. The reason why this happens is that sexed birds are usually in higher demand, and the process of sexing chicks can be dangerous, so hatcheries avoid sexing chicks if they can avoid it.
How to Sex Chicks
To sex your chicks, you can use a variety of different methods, some of which can be done at home, while others are best left to the experts.Vent Sexing
This is a very complicated process. It takes years of formal training to become an expert chicken sexer. When you read about what it entails, it might seem easy, but in truth, it can be extremely dangerous.It is possible to cause serious injuries or even death to the chicken when vent sexing is done incorrectly. When it comes to learning how to vent sex your birds, you should receive proper training. During this process, you must expel feces from the cloaca of the bird in order to get a perspective of its unique sexual characteristics.
It is important to remember that vent sexing is not 100% accurate, despite its high risk level. Even the best and most experienced vent sexers still make mistakes, so it might not be the best option when it comes to sexing your birds.
Sex Link Breeding
Although sex link chickens are considered a more modern method of poultry sexing, this technique has been in use for many, many years. Developed by Professor R.C. Punnet, this technique determines the sex of chicks by looking at their down color. Breed-specific combinations of rooster and hen provided an accurate identifying factor for males and females, but it worked only with certain breeds.The method also works only with first-generation sex links. The determination of gender will be less reliable if a sex link is matched up with a sex link. This method works, however, well for certain breeds.
As an example, black sex links are created by breeding a solid-colored rooster and a barred female. The resulting cockerels will have white spots on their heads. It is often done with breeds with cuckoo or barring patterns, such as Barred Rocks and Dominiques.
Several other breeds, such as Welsummers, have chicks with dorsal stripes. Unlike males who have no head patch and lines that are less noticeable, females have distinctive lines and blotches that appear like triangular patches. Breeds such as these are known as autosexing breeds.
Feather and Wing Sexing
In many cases, you can tell a chicken's sex from its wing feathers. If you have a breed where roosters and hens have a decent amount of feather variation, you may be able to use this technique. It will still take a few weeks, however, since chicks are born with down and not feathers.Other Old Wives Tales
Furthermore, we could also mention various colloquial methods of sexing chickens, but these methods aren't science-based. They are fun to be aware of, though! As an example, people once "predicted" a chick's sex by tying a needle to a string. It was female if the string went one way, it was male if it went the other.How to Sex Adult Chickens
It is much simpler - and more accurate - to sex adult birds than chicks. It is quite simple to sex a full-grown chicken as long as you know what to look for.Roosters and hens look pretty different, and even people who haven't handled chickens much can tell the difference. As part of their evolution, roosters are made to attract attention. A rooster is flashy in every way, designed to both seduce his hens and deter predators from his ladies (who are much less ornately dressed).
Roosters and hens differ greatly in several key ways.
Combs and Wattles
A rooster's comb will typically be large, well-developed, and very red. Combs can be used to show hens that a rooster is sexually mature. And hens tend to favor roosters with large, brightly-colored combs. This is because this indicates their health and well-being.The wattles of a rooster are typically much redder than those of a hen. This has to do with his desire to appear fit and healthy in front of his ladies. The combs and wattles of roosters often become redder and more developed at a younger age than those of hens.
Hackles and Saddle Feathers
Both hens and roosters have hackles, but you won't notice them on the females as much. Hackles are the feathers that fall down from the neck to the shoulders. For hens, they are shaped differently from those for roosters. In contrast to hens who have long, rounded hackle feathers, roosters have long, pointed feathers. Rooster's hackles are often described as a "mantle," although it is much more prominent on some breeds than on others.Roosters are usually more vibrantly colored than hens, in general. In order to avoid being vulnerable to predators, hens display a more subtle appearance.
The saddle feathers are another important difference between roosters and hens. The saddle feathers are only found in roosters. They are generally pointed and long and start around the middle of the back. In addition, they provide a sleek overall appearance as they cascade down around the tail.
Tail Feathers
People are much more likely to identify roosters from their tail feathers than from their hackles or saddle feathers. Hens have upright tails which are rounded and consist of feathers that are roughly the same length, while roosters have sickle-shaped feathers which, as their name implies, resemble a sickle. As they grow upwards and outwards, they create a waterfall-like cascade over the tail.Feet and Legs
As your chickens grow older, you may not be able to notice this characteristic, with the reliability waning as the chickens grow older. Foot and leg sexing can be reliable for a short period of time.Roosters, however, generally have larger, stronger, and more robust feet and legs than do hens. Even before the spurs form on these legs, you may be able to see buds developing where the spurs will later appear.
Essentially, the purpose of the spurs is to project health and strength. However, note that hens can also grow spurs as they age, although they may not be as pronounced as those on mature roosters.
Behavioral Differences
If you wait until certain behavioral characteristics emerge, you can tell whether your chickens are roosters or hens. Obviously, they're not 100 percent accurate - some hens can be aggressive while some roosters can be oddly docile. However, roosters are generally more assertive and outgoing than hens. When threatened, they will stand upright and defend the flock. They are also curious by nature.Hens tend to be more timid. In response to threats or a startle, they might crouch down and remain quiet.
When your chickens begin to feather out, you may notice subtle behavioral changes early on. For example, roosters often feather in patches while hens feather more uniformly.
The same does not apply to all breeds or even to all chicken groups. Remember that if you have a flock consisting only of hens, one hen (or a few hens, depending on how big your flock is) will automatically assume a rooster-like authority position. Like a rooster, she might act as a leader by gathering everyone together when there is a threat.
Later on, you'll come to recognize some differences in sexual behavior. You will notice that hens squat when your hand is placed above them, especially if there are no roosters in the flock. This indicates that they are sexually mature. When your hen starts laying eggs or exhibiting broody behaviors, you also know she is a hen!
When your rooster begins crowing, you will know he is indeed a rooster.
Problems with Learning How to Tell a Rooster From a Hen
Certain breeds are extremely difficult to sex. They don't like to reveal their identities in the correct way, so you'll probably have to wait months before finding out what they are.Breda chickens, for instance, are a unique breed that can be remarkably difficult to sex. They lack any comb, and hens often have wattles - and roosters always do. They grow slowly and take time to exhibit noticeable sexual differences. You can only reliably sex a Breda fowl when its saddle, sickle, and hackle feathers appear. In other words, you may need at least six months before you can tell hens from roosters!
The Silkies are also hard to sex - in fact, most breeders are unable to distinguish roosters from hens until the roosters start crowing (and the females start laying eggs).
Among the easiest chicken breeds to sex are:
- Wyandottes
- Welsummers
- Cream Crested Legbars
- Buff Plymouth Rocks
- Light Sussex
- Cuckoo or barred breeds
- Sex link chickens
Conclusion
Understanding the differences between hens and roosters before they are mature is an important skill, but don't lose sleep over trying to determine their sex until after they are fully grown.It does not matter how many guesses you make, but the only 100% foolproof method to tell if you have hens or roosters is to wait until they start crowing or producing eggs. Usually, that's between 12 and 30 weeks old.
However, you need not worry - there are some breeds that mature earlier, as well as individuals who tend to show their personalities very early in life. Until then, enjoy the fun stages of chickhood and young adulthood while they're young. After all, they're only little once.
Learn how to incubate eggs, take care of hatchlings, and properly care for brand new fluffy chicks HERE.
Further Reading:
