I have wondered if anyone else has tried the chick sexing method (developed in Japan, I think) where you look at the cloaca of the chick and decide by the shape of the closing? I bought a book with the diagrams of each sex so I tried this last year and saw that I may have all roosters (what odds!) of my first hatch. I dismissed it as "hooey", but then, it turned out that all of the little fuzz-balls were boys! I'm going to try it again, just to see if it was just a guess.

I have heard of a method that an old poultry agent would do when we were hatching our leghorns..he'd squeeze the little butts and the vent would bulge out. He'd know if they were boys or girls by the direction of the crease (horizontal or vertical) but I don't know which is which! Has anyone heard of this method before?

I'M NICK THE NEW GUY WITH A PEN OF REDS. HOW CAN I TELL WHO IS WHAT REGARDING THEIR SEX. NONE HAVE LAYED OR CROWED THOUGH THEY ARE GETTING TO THAT AGE. I HAVE ENJOYED RAISING THEM THUS FAR BUT WANT TO KNOW WHAT I HAVE (OR DON'T HAVE). ANY EASY METHODS OTHER THAN WAITING????

HANCOCKWR@HOTMAIL.COM

I'm Shirley, and I have the same problem as Nick, but with two geese.

I can sex bunnies at six to eight weeks, but the geese feel that this idea of up-ending them is NOT proper at all!! I'm guessing that the lighter of the two is the gander, does anyone know if that theory holds water?

Reply to: renaissancerabbitry@yahoo.com

THANKS

Nick, I'm also new and I'm trying to find out how to sex chickens that are about 2 months old ..can u or anyone out there help me...Please.

Hi. Re sex-linked crossing--I know that using a "gold" cockerel eg RIR on a "silver" hen eg Light Sussex enable you to sex chicks at hatching. As I now have gorgeous Welsummer cockerels, are these genetically "gold", enabling me produce sex-linked chicks with my Light Sussex?

I just bought 4 Arucanas (Americaunas, actually) and they're about 4 months old. The guy who sold them to me THINKS they're all hens, but he can't be too sure, as they're still too young. He says you can sometimes tell by the way they walk (at this age). Also, the feather shape is different. I'm just hoping I'm not stuck with 4 roosters.

when they start to feather out, the roosters have pointed feathers on their hackle and on the saddle of their back. The hens have a more rounded feather in the hackle and neck area. I wonder if all roosters have spurs and most hens don't. Thanks joanyh

If you have maybe one or two roosters you can compare their combs. Take the one with the reddest, fullest comb and compare it to the others. If there is a big difference between it and another one then you probably have a different sex. Females will normally have a very small comb that is stuck to their head(assuming yours have pea combs)Americaunas are hard to tell the difference, but watch them for a while and the males will definately act out.
Good Luck, Christie

I have Americaunas and Barnvelders and find that the young females feather up quicker, the males have redder combs, their combs get bigger quicker and they look leggier than the young females. The males get the pointy feathers on their necks as mentioned above.

I have 15 chicks about 6 weeks old and my son pointed out that about half have red legs and feet while the rest have brown. Would this have anything to do with being a hen or rooster?

Hi
I'm woundering about the bottums up idea which way is (horizontal/vertical)a hen & which way is a rooster?