Ever hear of "chick flipping" to determine the sex of chicks? Try this

[country]

I was doing a search & came across this thread about chick flipping. One of the posters learned this sexing trick from an old chicken farmer. Basically, you hold the chick, then lay it on its back on your hand. In a few seconds the chick will relax & stick out one or both legs. 1 leg, it's a hen, both legs, its a roo. Chicks should preferably be under 1 wk, but many tried on older chicks. Some people swore that it worked for them.

I don't know if this even works, but it is well worth doing, just for the "funniness factor."

Many of my chicks had different reactions. Some struggled more than others, but most DID relax & straighten a leg or two. With several, it was like a hypnotist snapped their fingers & ZING - sleepy bye time, eyes closed & the leg(s) immediately went stiff. Others stayed awake looking at me but still gave the leg reaction. Now, I don't know if I was just having a giggly night or what, but I was totally cracking up watching the way these chicks reacted.

Here are my results - ALL my Faverolle/Cochin cross chicks immediately dozed off & stuck out one leg - the left one. I don't know what it means that they all stuck out the same leg, but I'm happy to know that I have ALL hens!

Silkies were all different. Some didn't stick out either leg. They just laid there looking at me with those cute little "evil" eyes, trying to put a spell on me. Others would just immediately relax & pretend they were asleep, & then try to hex me while I was paying attention to which leg was reacting. According to the test, a good portion of them are roos, but they've already voodooed me into keeping all of them so I hope the test is wrong.

One interesting note - my chicks are all banded but I have several so I goofed & retested several of the chicks by mistake. One chick was tested 3 times - once it was a roo, once a hen, & the next time it was a neuter - both legs stayed up. I'm not dissin' the test mind you, as I didn't talk to the chicken farmer

he might have a reasonable explanation for my results. Also, I may not have been holding my chicks the right way. I went back & looked at the pictures posted & tomorrow I'm planning on doing some serious "chick flipping" & I'm going to take pictures & record my flippin' results...if I can quit laughing long enough to click & write! Try this! We can all use a good laugh, plus the cuteness factor is incredible!

Country

 

[A.J.'s]

That is a new one on me.
Ive heard that when the chicks are hatched and all dried out and relaxed, you can run your hand over their heads in a sweeping manner and the hens will duck down while the roos will stand up straighter and stick their heads UP.
Ive tried this, but never followed up to see if it was correct.

 

[dixiechick]

I heard of it, seen it and done it. It is surprisingly accurate.

 

[denasfarm]

I had an older lady visit (friend of my MIL) and she tried it on the last hatch of my EEs for last year. A few came out right but not all of them.
She said I had way more pullets than bloomed out of the bunch.
But she had a 50/50 chance on it working on a few right??

I have also heard of hanging a string over them and if it moves a certian way its a girl or boy...Chicken witchen I guess Like water witchers...

Interesting anyway

 

[silkieluver_07]

Here's a picture of one of the chicks I did the test to last year. She turned out to be a pullet.

I switched the levels and color variations for photography class, this isn't her actual color.

 

[country]

This is why I LOVE BYC! I don't think I have ever logged on & not learned something new, interesting, helpful, etc. AJ, that sounds like an interesting test & possibly valid due to personality traits of roos & hens. I'm definitely going to try it with my next chicks hatched & see what happens.

I can even see where the chick flipping might give fairly accurate results for the same reasons, but I think that HOW it's done might influence the results. For instance, the pics I saw on the original thread showed chicks being held in someones hand so that's the way I did it, but I found that my fingers sometimes interfered with the chick's leg movement. Silkieluver, your picture shows a way that might give better results. I'm definitely going to try it & keep records so I know if it gives a better than 50-50 chance. However, since Silkies take so long to tell the sex by characteristics, if I can't keep all of them until at least 6 months, my experiment might end up useless.

Is there anyone out there that would do the test on earlier maturing chicks & let us know the results? I'd really like to know if this is just another old wives tale or if it actually gets fair results.

Country

 

[MrsShag]

Interesting! I have 2 Ameraucana chicks that are 9 days old and I just tried it with them. They are supposed to both be hens and they both only put one leg out.

 

[EweSheep]

Hmmmmmmmmmmm! Would not hurt to try it out LOL! We will be able to find out if it is a wive's tale or not!

 

[Robin'sBrood]

I got 6 chicks this past spring and was assured that they were all females that had been sexed using that method. 2 were males, and 1 died not long after we bought it, so

if it was really a female or another male.

 

[silkieluver_07]

Quote:
I put them on my bed to do the testing. I'm not sure if that had a different result on the test or not.