Air sac determines sex.

[OrpingtonManiac]

Please don't do uncomfortable things to chicks like hanging them from the neck / feet.
The possibility of damaging them is high. And it could be very traumatizing.

When a chicken is more mature they can be carried by the legs when necessary (like a struggling cockerel on the way to slaughter), but their bones are thicker and they are all-around more developed. Even that is not without risk, just a judgment call for the safety of the handler.

I agree

 

[Boop2006]

The first two note the air sac to the side. The third pic notes the air sac is slightly larger and more to the center on the second non incubated day. Some are difficult to determine. The booklet states if the air sack is facing away from the observer and cannot be viewed at all it should be a female.

 

[Boop2006]

I agree

That’s why I don’t attempt vent checking.

 

[Perris]

The booklet is titled How to Tell the Sex of an Egg Before Incubation by Thomas Quisenberry. If you google that, select the USDA article. Click on 'full Article' and you can read the book. It is also available on Amazon.

You have logged that this was published in 1921. It is a real antique. If you look it up on the internet archive, you get this warning

Just because it is old does not mean it is wrong/useless/rubbish. But it does mean that a lot of chicken keepers have lived between its publication and today, and no doubt some have tried it. If it worked, I think there would be agreement by now.

One problem with digital resources is that bad old ideas are revived to mislead another generation of people. Internet slop contains a lot of information zombies.

 

[MysteryChicken]

I will! I want to compare that with the 'hanging the chick by the feet' method. A male is supposed to hang straight, the hen will curl. If held by the head, the male will hang straight and the hen will pull up the feet.

The hanging by feet thing is a myth, I can tell you that.

 

[horselover1999]

I tried the hanging by the feet thing when I got my very first chicks, it didn't work.
Please don't hang them by the head.
When working on a research farm, we would carry older chicks and mature chickens by holding both legs in one hand for quick transports from pen to pen or from a transport crate to the pen, but those were very short distances, and if done for a long time, the organs can smush down on the air sacs, preventing them from inflating, suffocating the bird.
We would also carry lighter mature birds by both wings, but broiler breeders were for the most part too heavy for that.
I vaccinated every chick, and I would support their body in one hand while I pinched the place I was vaccinating with the same hand. I had to wait until they knew I wasn't going to kill them before I put a needle anywhere close to them, and supporting their body helped a ton. I would never have grabbed them by the neck.
Try the non-harmful old wives tales if you want, but each method has a 50/50 chance of being correct.

 

[Ingrid_Grace]

I know the holding the chicks doesn't work, but I'm curious about the air thing. I guess i just have to hatch eggs now to see for myself

 

[Boop2006]

Reading the replies to my question, which, I guess hoped would result in positive responses, has truly left me disappointed. Basically, I have had a few, very few positive responses, and a list of responses informing me how foolish I was to
1. waste my time on reading such an article from so long ago
2. dare to think such a method was possible much less probable
3. would harm my new hatched chicks- at the time I posted that response, I was already frustrated with the responses previously received.
4. and how dumb I was because I did not have or investigate the scientific data before making such a post. Possibly leading others down the path of my stupidity for repeating a 100 year old article.

I'm disappointed that this site has made me feel so inadequate in such a short amount of time. I will no longer be following this post, nor will I be posting any additional information.

You should read the posts and respond positively or not at all. Telling someone their ideas are BS is just inconsiderate. If you have not tried something or heard about it, and that was the question, why respond at all.

 

[Ingrid_Grace]

Telling someone their ideas are BS is just inconsiderate. If you have not tried something or heard about it, and that was the question, why respond at all.

 

[Squawkers]

Reading the replies to my question, which, I guess hoped would result in positive responses, has truly left me disappointed. Basically, I have had a few, very few positive responses, and a list of responses informing me how foolish I was to
1. waste my time on reading such an article from so long ago
2. dare to think such a method was possible much less probable
3. would harm my new hatched chicks- at the time I posted that response, I was already frustrated with the responses previously received.
4. and how dumb I was because I did not have or investigate the scientific data before making such a post. Possibly leading others down the path of my stupidity for repeating a 100 year old article.

I'm disappointed that this site has made me feel so inadequate in such a short amount of time. I will no longer be following this post, nor will I be posting any additional information.

You should read the posts and respond positively or not at all. Telling someone their ideas are BS is just inconsiderate. If you have not tried something or heard about it, and that was the question, why respond at all.

I would love for you to do this experiment! I, personally, doubt that it is true, but it would be fascinating to see the results. It can't hurt to separate eggs in your incubator according to air sacs and see what happens, regardless of what people are saying. Although I do think holding them by their heads is risky Please go on with this experiment @Boop2006 and update your results