Baby chicks can be sexed at one day old.
Sexing newborn chicks is done commercially by skilled, experienced specialists who can process hundreds of birds in an hour, at a fraction of a second each. There are only two reliable ways to sex day-old birds. The first is to deliberately cross two breeds in such a way that they can be visibly differentiated by their plumage, a process called sex-linking. The second is to hold each chick upside down and manually inspect their sexual organs, a process called vent-sexing. This technique is much more difficult for the novice.
Instructions
Feather Sexing Sex-Linked Chicks
1. Hold the day-old chick gently in your non-dominant hand. Do this over an easily sterilized surface, as many of the chicks will leave droppings on your work area.
2. Grasp the wingtip in your dominant hand. Gently fan the feathers at the wingtip, holding them in place with your thumb and forefinger.
3. Examine the feathers at the wingtip. If the outer primary feathers are longer, and the downy insulating feathers are shorter, you are holding a female. If the outer primary feathers and downy insulating feathers are the same length, you are holding a male.
4. Compare color. In some cases, sex-linked crosses can be differentiated by the color of the chicks' down.
Vent-Sexing Chicks
5. Gently hold the chick upside down in your non-dominant hand. Professionals will squeeze out the chicks' embryonic droppings with a gentle pressure from their thumb, but this requires long practice. Home hobbyists can simply wipe the area with tissues, to avoid injuring the chicks.
6. Spread the vent area with the thumb and forefinger of your dominant hand.
7. Examine the inside of the vent. Males have a rudimentary sexual organ visible, a small transparent bulb. If this is absent, you are usually looking at a female.
Related posts
You can defeather a properly scalded chicken in minutes.If you are raising chickens with self-sufficiency in mind, sooner or later you will need to butcher one and prepare it for cooking. Luckily,...
Silkie chickens are one of the few bantam chicken varieties that don't have a standard-size counterpart. Silkies are known for their soft, fluffy plumage that resembles fur, black skin and blue ea...
Giving a chicken a bath may not be as terrifying as you may think.Being able to show off your prized hen at the county fair marks a sense of pride and honor in communities around the globe. Washin...
Unlike mammals, chicks do not have exterior sex organs.As a farmer, you need to determine which baby chickens will produce eggs and which chickens will be used for meat. Telling the difference bet...
Determining the sex of a chicken before they develop secondary sex characteristics, which more easily identify them as roosters (male) or hens (female) is most useful in egg hatching farms where r...
