Roo, or not to roo...Chickie's mom? Lot's of pics!!!

[897tgigvib]

Even I could tell the sex of a CHICKEN by the shapes of the eggs that it lays...

(...it's a sleeper!...)


and still hiding!

 

[joz]

Hatcheries vent-sex chicks.
Bantam or small breeds have proportionally smaller vents and are more difficult to accurately sex. So for the purposes of a 10% max error guarantee, they won't necessarily sell sexed bantams.

I think. I might be making all that up tho, because I know I've considered buying a milles fleur d'uccle rooster from a hatchery, which contradicts what I said above (tho I think the upcharge for a sexed bantam was more than for large fowl...)
That and I can't imagine hatcheries looking at every single chick.

 

[catjac1975]

There's a program called "How It's made" that did a segment in a hatchery. What a hoot. The noise of tens of thousands of chicks was deafening.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Heres a fun one for one way to sex chicks. This talks about vent sexing. Im not sure that everything they say about this is 100% accurate, it is TV after all, but its still fun to watch.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1tmEO9xRqvo

Joz, you are right. Bantams are a lot harder to vent sex than full-sized chicks. Most hatcheries dont even try bantams. They dont necessarily vent sex every chick, just enough to fill their contracts and orders.

There are other ways to sex chick besides vent sexing. You have the sex links characteristics way. The very first post in this thread talks about that. It gets into genetics so it is something Marshall and some others might really enjoy.

http://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=261208

The gist of it is that the rooster is generous to all his children and gives a copy of everything he has to all his offspring. The hen on the other hand is a stingy sexist. She gives all she has to her sons but withholds certain genes from her daughters. This means the hen determines the sex of the offspring, not the rooster.

If the hen gives a dominant gene to her son and not to her daughter and the rooster gives a recessive to both and the dominant one can be observed at hatch, you can tell sex at hatch. The parents have to both be set up right genetically. There are actually several of these but the three most commonly used are red sex links, black sex links, and feather-sexing. That thread gives good detail about all three.

 

[Chickie'sMomaInNH]

Even I could tell the sex of a CHICKEN by the shapes of the eggs that it lays...

(...it's a sleeper!...)


and still hiding!

with silkie chickens i know there is a saying that the only way to be sure is to wait till it lays an egg or crows! one local was heading to a show with a 'roo' just to find out it laid an egg while in transit! guess she never heard it crow but she must have thought there were other signs that screamed it would be a roo.

most of my birds are bantams so watching while they are feathering in tends to work for me on spotting cockerels early. it could be that i have a line that feathers in slow. i've heard some breeders try to cull birds from their flock if this happens but i'm not breeding to sell, just replace due to losses. i think it has something to do with feather quality.
my first pair of bantam salmon faverolles i hatched. Chloe is the nearly full feathered salmon color on the right in the pic, while Charlie is looking right at the camera. they were hatched a day apart-Chloe on Easter Sunday 2009 and then Charlie the next morning.

 

[MontyJ]

Thanks folks. I'll try checking out the legs next time I'm out there. It's a lot easier to observe them now that we can actually walk in with them.

Yes Marshall, these are those little fuzzballs. If you think these are big, you should see the CX that are the same age!

You are correct Ridge. They are 4 weeks old yesterday. I already have a home for any roosters I end up with. But she doesn't want them until they crow (she only wants full grown chickens), and I don't want to get rid of them until they crow, so it all works out.

 

[vfem]

I need to see the tail and back of the neck better. I can't always go by comb.... I would say roo. But I want a better shot from the back!

 

[897tgigvib]

what is sex venting?

 

[digitS']

Ummm. I'm not . . .

The vent, Marshall. The chicken's urinary and digestive tracks come together just before exiting. Also inside, are the female sexual organs. The sexual organs of the male are in there as well, in the "exit."

Since, it is all internal, recognizing the sex can be done based on the shape and size of the exit. The vent.

Steve

 

[897tgigvib]

...oh...



Guess I missed that part of the birds and the bees...