HELP.
My husband and I have been buying our chicks for the last four years and have decided to try incubating our own. We have people that will purchase day old males but we have no idea how to sex the chicks. If anyone has any tips or could recommend any books with information on the above, it would be very much appreciated.

Debbie,

There is a very good book written by Loyl Stromberg called Sexing all fowl.

However, a hatchery gave me a little hint of a way toi do a visual check without protruding.

Look at the flight feathers on the wings. A pullet will have 2 distinctly different lengths of flight feathers. Whereas, the cockeral will have only one.

I have found this to be quite reliable and easy. It is best used between 2 days and 2 weeks, before the new wings feathers start coming in. Also on older chicks, after 2 weeks, the cockerals generally have a pronounced tail feathering, comnpared to a puulet.

Debbie,

It is very difficult to vent sex day old chicks, even the hatchery experts make mistakes. I have purchased sexed pullets from that had a couple of cockerals mixed in. I have raised around 12 different breeds of chickens and found that by observing them each day the first ones to sprout their tail feathers were the pullets. The cockerals were 1-2 weeks behind the pullets before sprouting any tail feathers. I am very sorry that this conflicts with what Sandi mentioned and this was not the case with some of the bantams I have raised but has worked with every full sized breed that I have had so far, but like the bantams, may not work with every breed. The cockerals feet grew larger and they would start to show a trace of waddles first. I know this does not help you with day old chicks but watch and see what happens in a couple of weeks. I have found this to be extreamly reliable with the American and English breeds I have had. I am waiting to see what happens with some baby Brahams I just got to see if it also works with the Asiatic breeds.

The more chicks I raise it gets easier to tell boys from girls when they are just a few days old.
The pullets do tend to have longer tail feathers and their bodies will be more streamlined.
The cockrels have stumpy tails and a bigger crops with less cheast feathers too.

I bought the book "Sexing all Fowl" but I still couldn't do vent sexing worth a hoot!

:O) Farm Mom

I've been following this conversation with interest. We were sent 20 leghorn chicks with our bantam order to keep the little guys warm. Undoubtly the majority are cockerals and will be leaving ASAP. I've been checking primary feathers, crops, tail feathers and checking for waddles. I'll keep any that are pullets if I can observe any differences. If I find one point that seems different the other three look the same. Any more hints or clues would be appreciated! It may not be politically correct but they all look the same to me. We do have a dozen other chicks (suppose to be pullets) that are 3 weeks older so I'm looking for differences in them too. Same observations. Thanks. Jan.

You can have a county extension agent come out to teach you how to vent sex your chickens. Once you've had someone point out what to look for, it's a little easier!

I am also interested in learning how to sex day old chicks .Please give me some hints and tips. chickenMAN

I have found in my observations that the pullets do get their tail feathers too. Also, when they get a little older the cockerels seem to have a V of feathers on their back. Sort of like the point of the V starts by the hackle feathers with the opening of the V toward the tail. I have some chicks comming March 6th and will try the wing feather test to see if it is true.
Deeds

We just got 25 white leghorn chicks. We intend to keep them for egg production. They are doing quite well. I am assuming they are about 6 weeks old right now. We are new to this, and I'm wondering why I'm told I should get rid of the roosters ASAP. Is there more to it than the fact that there's no point in feeding them if you don't need them? (I do understand that they'll begin roughing up the hens when they get about half grown.)

I just got an order of chicks from McMurray Hatchery and in the order I ordered two roosters and the rest are supposed to be pullets. Unfortunately, they didn't mark the boys as promised. I called them back to ask them about feather sexing and they looked it up in a reference book they have and said that that method is only reliable in Rhode Island Reds and other sex linked breeds but won't work on my little polish. I did try to use this method but all the chicks feathers looked pretty much the same. SO, it looks like feather sexing will not work on most breeds of chicks. (Darn!)

Connie

I to am new to raising chickens . I have 3 pair of
Hamburgs . My question is is it bad to leave the roosters in the pens with the hens all the time? or should i leave them for periods of time?

I think it is a bad idea to sepparate the roos from the hens. THe roos will be very protective killing animals that will hurt your hens and steal your eggs. Your hens may loose some featers, but their much better off with roosters to protect them.

YoYo, I find that really hard to swallow right now. I have lost 15 chickens to a coon that we had to kill(right now we are under a rabies alert and the darn thing attacked my german shepherd who is full grown and weighs in at 99 pounds, causing bites and fear of rabies shots for my husband and myself) The roosters were not protecting anything but themselves. Roosters are more for show and fertilization use only. They do cackle when they find something of interest but thats about it. At this moment I am still upset over the fact that I lost so many to this coon, he was feeding well as when he was killed he weighed in at 17 pounds. I did get the results back from the health department yesterday and we are not needing the rabies shots as it was negative but I am telling all of you that was the longest 3 days I have ever spent worrying.

Well, their is only so much a rooster can do against a coon. You are being pig headed to think that roosters don't do anything. Your roo probebly did try to do something for his hens, but what can you expect a roo to do whith a coon. My freind's roo almost got himself killed protecting his hens from a rotwieler. The rooster lost a spur fighting with the stupid dog. Roosters are more courageous than most people and I wish you wouldn't give rooster a bad name becuase yours could protect his hens from a coon. I have been attacked many times by roosters who thought I was hurting their hens. How is that protecting themselves. Roosters do alot more than you give them credit for. Please give them some respect.

Lighten up, YoYo.

I have made a coop that is suppose to be animal proof. After reading these messages I am not so sure. So the question is: Can coons and opossums get through chicken wire? WE used it on the 2 small top areas of the coop and am now worried. WE just started in this with my son and his 4-H project I would hate to see them all dead. Help please

If you fasten the poultry wire with poultry staples about every two inches, you should be fine. You could also put on another layer of poultry wire, or a layer of hardware cloth. If the wire is secured very well around the edges, you should be okay. What about digging underneath, or tipping the enclosure over? Is that possible? For my coop back door I have hardware cloth over screen, very securely fastened with poultry staples. The panel is screwed in all around with long screws, not just hooked with a hook. For our duck pen, we have two large hooks and a latching hook with a slide latch that prevents the hook from coming open without sliding the latch back while unhooking the hook.

If you are prone to visits by serious predators, some preemptive action against them would be in order to prevent disaster.

We have hardware cloth over a wood frame door and it is latched with a hook I have a picture I can send to anyone who could look it over and give me tips. They have been out there 2 nights so far and I worry about their safety but the dog seems to have taken to protecting them. Nothing can get close to the coop with out him barking. Is this normal for Chickens to be protected by our family dog??

Good dogs will consider the whole family, including the chickens, their "pack" and protect them. I would not rely too much on a dog, though. Dogs sleep a lot!!!
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