# How do you sex a chicken



## 2rain (Jun 2, 2013)

How do you sex chicks or chickens I have always wondered


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## Apyl (Jun 20, 2012)

Feather sex at a couple days old for a lot of breeds, vent sex by an experienced person, color sex with sexlink breeds, or wait for the egg and crow.


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## 2rain (Jun 2, 2013)

Apyl said:


> Feather sex at a couple days old for a lot of breeds, vent sex by an experienced person, color sex with sexlink breeds, or wait for the egg and crow.


How do you vent and feather sex?


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## Bee (Jun 20, 2013)

This little slide show is imformative..the link starts at the back, so just skip back through the pics and info until you get to the first slide.

http://animalsciences.missouri.edu/reprod/ReproTech/Feathersex/sld006.htm

I've watched vent sexing videos but still can't see what they are seeing when I do it to my own. Guess it takes a knack.

I watch feather development as young chicks..notice the pullets get their wings and tails faster. I also watch their stance, as the breeds I have will show the rooster in a more upright stance when moving and running and the pullets in a more horizontal to the ground stance. Comb and wattle development come next but some can fool you for awhile on some breeds if you don't look at other features of the bird.

I also look at the feet and legs, as in the breeds I use you can see the difference in the size of feet and legs as they grow, which you can couple with the other aspects of feathering and stance to give a good surmise as to sex. After that the difference in feathering starts to show up, with hackle and saddle feathers showing up on the roos and not on the pullets. That's about the last indicator for me because the breeds I keep get their combs and wattles early on.

Mostly, I don't order straight run birds unless they are meat chicks. Those hatched in the nest are the only ones I have any interest in sexing and that's just out of curiosity, as I keep the roosters for killing for meat and have no need to get rid of them like folks do in areas that cannot have roosters.


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