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

[joz]

Japan is apparently the foremost educator of Chicken Sexers.

http://www.majiroxnews.com/2011/07/26/japanese-chick-sexing-a-dream-job-not-just-for-guys/

 

[MontyJ]

I'll try to get some shots of the back of the neck for you vfem. They don't always cooperate for photo shoots. I did look at the legs, but I can't really tell if some are bigger than others. I guess I could get out my calipers and measure them. The chick in mugshot one has got even redder in the comb and wattles, or maybe that's just me assuming that it should be.

 

[vfem]

Those asians are AWESOME sexers of chicks! I don't know HOW they do it. What I do know is day old feather sexing is a NO GO. Just as good as 50/50 guessing in the end. Booo

I just wanna see if there are any hackle and saddle feathers obvious yet. :/

 

[Chickie'sMomaInNH]

i would only use it on breeds that can be reliably sexed by their feathers.

 

[Ridgerunner]

If you look at the first post in this thread it tells you how feather sexing works. There is a specific gene that controls how fast the feathers come in. With the fast feathering version the wing feathers have already started to come in at hatch. With the slow feathering version of that gene, those wing feathers are not nearly as far advanced.

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

The father has to be pure for the fast feathering gene. Pure means both copies of that gene pair are the fast feathering version. The mother has to have the slow feathering gene, which is dominant. But a hen only has one copy of this gene, not two. She gives a copy to her sons but not here daughters. So the female offspring of that slow feathering rooster and fast feathering hen will only get a slow from her Daddy. The male offspring gets a slow from Daddy but a fast from Mommy. Since the fast is dominant, the boys feather in faster than the girls.

Feather sexing works if it is set up right, but the parents have to be right genetically. There is so much misinformation about this on the chicken forum its really frustrating.