How accruate is feed stores at sexing chicks?

[blueshirt8876]

I'm going to get 8 Buff Orpingtons in May at Farm and Fleet, but i'm not so sure that all my chicks will end up as hens. I want all hens, but I may get a rooster. So, how accruate are feed stores ad sexing chicks? Also, If I do get a rooster, what do I do with it? I don't want it, but I also don't want to give it away (wouldn't that be, well, mean?)?

 

[akcountrygrrl]

The feed stores won't actually do the sexing, that would be the job of the hatchery they buy their chicks from. After that, you have to hope that they don't allow customers to handle the chicks and possibly put them in the wrong bin thereby possibly mixing sexed chicks with unsexed chicks. I believe the hatcheries guarantee a certain percentage (like 80-90%) of accuracy. I would also talk to the feed store and find out if you get reimbursed if the sexing is wrong.

 

[hdowden]

feed stores dont do the sexing but the hatcheries sex them and its like a 90% guarantee. if you get a rooster you can: keep it, sell it, give it away, or eat it

 

[Nicole01]

Out of 8 chicks last year, 1/2 straight run, I ended up with 100% hens. My neighbor picked 8 sexed pullets and ended up with a rooster, which she kept.

This year I added 3 more, but my cuckoo maran ended being a boy, so I switched him 2 weeks later for the last female, which I believe someone brought back due to wry neck. I fixed her wry neck in 2 days with vitamins. She was the only one left out of that shipment. Cuckoo marans go quickly.

I love the farm store where I get my chicks. They will take roosters back and exchange if needed or take the rooster back. They will even special order a breed if you want, which is hard to find a store that sells chicks in the first place.

 

[Coop Deville]

If you don't want a rooster, but couldn't give one away if you got it, I can't think of any alternative but to eat it.