Sexing Chicks

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Sexing chicks is often necessary if they are to be sold. Selling day old chicks has become very popular as they can be shipped over night, long distances, in fair weather, with little trouble.

20 or more fluffy chicks in a box with minimal ventilation will keep each other warm enough, but hatcheries are unable to ship just a few.

For the most part, sexing chicks is a process done in large hatcheries by professionally trained veterinary technicians, examining the internal sex organs. If you want to hatch and sell sexed chicks you will have to learn. Another option is to breed sex linked colors.

This is accomplished by crossing a rooster of one breed with hens of another breed and color. In certain combination's, all female chicks will be one color and all male chicks another, making sexing very simple. The other option is to sell chicks “straight run” meaning unsexed, and no guarantees of how many male or female chicks.

Sexing day old chicks is very difficult. The following instructions for sexing chicks are meant mainly as a description of the process, because doing this incorrectly can result in life threatening internal injuries to the chicks.

If you have any doubts about doing this, it’s best to wait until the chicks are older. Bantam chicks are so difficult to sex, due to their small size and the damage potential, that even the large hatcheries sell most bantams “straight run”.

If you feel confident that you will not harm chicks in the process, have excellent eye sight, believe yourself extremely observant, and think you are ready to practice, go find yourself a few day old chicks, preferably not bantams.

Sexing Chicks: Hold a chick in one hand, firmly but gently with the chick’s rear facing you. In that hand use one finger to separate the legs as you hold it head up. Hold the chick over a sink or other area that can be easily cleaned. Press gently on its abdomen, then gently squeeze its vent with the thumb and first finger of your other hand.

This will clear the vent of feces to make it easier for sexing chicks. You can now carefully spread the vent, using your thumb and index finger, and cause the tissue just inside the vent to be visible.

You may want to use magnifying reading glasses. Sexing chicks at a young age is difficult. If doing this correctly you should see a small protrusion, called a process, in males. It may look button-like, or something like a penis.

Usually the females will have no visible bulge, or just a slight indentation. Some females may have a small bump that looks like a process. However, this bump will often be dull in tone, rather than the shiny surface that indicates a male.

Obvious males should be placed in one box and obvious females in another. Place any chicks in a third box if you are uncertain and repeat the sexing process after you have a little more experience and have checked the whole group. Even professionals at the big hatcheries claim only to be seventy-five percent accurate.

Sharon's Method for Sexing Chicks

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I’ve noticed that within the first weeks of life I can see a difference in the thickness of the legs of chicks. Male chicks, with thicker legs, seem to grow a little faster and soon become taller than the females.

In many bird species, since the pelvic area of the females will pass eggs, the legs are set a little wider apart. In sexing young chickens these comparative methods only work with chicks of the same age and same pure breed.

Mixed breed chicks may have different dominant genes, some from the rooster and some from the hen, and different breeds mature at different rates.

Watching your chicks as they grow can allow you to notice subtle changes, making sexing chicks simple. Young roosters, or cockerels, will develop taller combs that begin turning darker, long before they are fully feathered and start developing long cycle, saddle and tail feathers.

These young bantam Phoenix chicks, just weeks old already display pink and slightly taller combs in the cockerels, while the pullet combs are still yellow and small. The comb becomes taller, as in the last photo, then it begins to change color.

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