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hen or rooster? PICS ADDED
so i got me 4 chicks and they are about a month old, how do i tell if they are male or female?
thanks,
noah
Posted By: Law Dog
Re: hen or rooster? - 03/20/18 04:01 AM
They will need to grow a bit then they will get spurs (females get them sometimes) after the 1st crowing you will know!
Posted By: Sharon
Re: hen or rooster? - 03/20/18 04:01 AM
You need to wait till you see wee signs of a comb on their head. Thats what I look for. Its usually larger than the pullets.
Posted By: KeithC
Re: hen or rooster? - 03/20/18 04:07 AM
Young birds can be hard to sex. As they age, the hackle and saddle feathers of the males will get pointier and longer. The spurs on the males will grow much quicker. If they are a combed breed, the combs will be larger and brighter colored on the males. The wattles will be brighter colored on the males too. Overall, the males will have blockier and larger heads. The pelvic spacing on the hens will usually be wider than on the males too.
Keith
Posted By: star flakes
Re: hen or rooster? - 03/20/18 04:12 AM
Sexing chicks is a skill which the hatcheries employ experienced workers for, which involves things which would kill most chicks in inexperienced hands. You can try something though if you have a skill for it in it is called dowsing.
Get needle and thread, push the needle into a pencil with an eraser. Wrap the string around your finger and then hold the chick, put the pencil over the chick, and wait for the pencil to swing either in a circle or straight line. Circle means female, male is the straight line. It will vibrate after it swings.
This is an old method, and you can read about it in people even used it for sexing eggs to be hatched. Our neighbor used to do this on guineas all the time.
Posted By: Calvin
Re: hen or rooster? - 03/20/18 04:19 AM
And in some flocks (if all hens) one will sometimes take on the roll of a rooster. I've had hens crow before. Well it's not like a rooster but they try, I guess. I've been fooled into thinking a juvenile bird was a rooster when it was just the dominant hen. It's usually fairly short lived and/or sporadic, though.
Posted By: Tomcat 30-06
Re: hen or rooster? - 03/20/18 04:25 AM
A Rooster is always the one on top and if it's a hen it's on the bottom. Hope this helps.
Posted By: tjm
Re: hen or rooster? - 03/20/18 09:41 AM
Can vent sex new chicks on first day only after that you wait. At 5-6 months the hackles and spurs will be a fair indication, after 8-12 months or so the ones laying eggs are hens.
I have seen wide variety of comb and wattle development even within a breed and the same hatch group, so I don't count that as any more than a 50/50 guess. Within a breed the cockerels will usually have longer legs and bigger heads, again a guess.
Posted By: tomahawker
Re: hen or rooster? - 03/20/18 10:00 AM
Look for signs of an eye patch
Posted By: micheal
Re: hen or rooster? - 03/20/18 10:13 AM
Hens- eggs
Rooster- no eggs
Posted By: Kevin Stake
Re: hen or rooster? - 03/20/18 10:49 AM
What breed do you have? We have leghorn and easter eggers that are 6 weeks that I have a pretty good idea which ones are going to be roosters and which will be hens.
Posted By: MB750
Re: hen or rooster? - 03/20/18 10:53 AM
You can always pick them up & shake them. Those that rattle are roosters.
Posted By: Diggerman
Re: hen or rooster? - 03/20/18 12:57 PM
Hens, the ones that just wont shut up.
Posted By: Kyt
Re: hen or rooster? - 03/20/18 01:11 PM
Just saw on "how its made" or some program a few days ago they were showing chicks being sexed at a commercial hatchery. They were only looking at the two rows of emerging wing feathers. If they were even they were one sex, if they were uneven, the other sex. They were sexing those chicks about 10 times as fast as the old vent inspection way. But they didn't say how accurate they were.
It would help if I could remember what sex a chick with even wing feathers were, wouldn't it?
Posted By: trapete
Re: hen or rooster? - 03/20/18 01:37 PM
Hens have longer eyelashes
Posted By: Hobbs
Re: hen or rooster? - 03/20/18 01:42 PM
This is going to sound silly but I have used it for years with great success and the old timer that showed it to me has used it for 40 some odd years. Tie a loop of string through a nut or a washer, hold the string over the top of the chicks head ( try to get it within 1" at least),... so here comes the part where most people think I have lost my mind. Keep the string perfectly still when you lower it over the chick, if its a female the nut/washer will move in small circles. If its a male it will move in a straight line back an forth. I will say that for some people the movement will be greater than in others, my wife can barely see hers move and mine move in big exaggerated motions.
If you don't think this is true, try holding it over your spouse or your pet and see if you don't get the results I predicted. Hope this helps, PM me if it works for you.
Posted By: 330-Trapper
Re: hen or rooster? - 03/20/18 02:29 PM
Hens- eggs
Rooster- no eggs
This
Posted By: wkimble1
Re: hen or rooster? - 03/20/18 07:40 PM
If you could post a pic it would help a lot. Ive raised quite a few chickens. It would be good to know the breed also.
Posted By: wkimble1
Re: hen or rooster? - 03/20/18 07:40 PM
Just saw on "how its made" or some program a few days ago they were showing chicks being sexed at a commercial hatchery. They were only looking at the two rows of emerging wing feathers. If they were even they were one sex, if they were uneven, the other sex. They were sexing those chicks about 10 times as fast as the old vent inspection way. But they didn't say how accurate they were.
It would help if I could remember what sex a chick with even wing feathers were, wouldn't it?
That only works on specific breeds and it has to be done within about 4 days of hatching to be accurate.
Posted By: Osky
Re: hen or rooster? - 03/20/18 09:01 PM
Why I'd just give em something to drink then take em to the bathroom and see which sit and which stand when they go.
Osky
Posted By: pcr2
Re: hen or rooster? - 03/20/18 09:04 PM
some can tell by the color and size of the teeth.
not sure what kind they are and getting these things to sit still is impossible
sorry about the bad pics they came off my wifes phone!
a few better ones.
Posted By: RightWayFur
Re: hen or rooster? - 03/21/18 12:22 AM
Hens...
my luck i thought i would get all roosters...lol
Posted By: wkimble1
Re: hen or rooster? - 03/21/18 01:44 AM
Really hard to tell from those pics. Do you know what type of chickens they are supposed to be? Do you have any closeups of the combs? Just from the pics, i would lean toward at least 2 hens based on the length of the tail feathers. Hens tend to grow out much faster than roos.
Posted By: tjm
Re: hen or rooster? - 03/21/18 01:48 AM
wait another 2 months
Looks like 2 hens and 2 roosters to me.
Posted By: RightWayFur
Re: hen or rooster? - 03/22/18 12:33 AM
Im also guessing black astrolorps...not sure on spelling....and buff orpingtons...
Posted By: gutthooked
Re: hen or rooster? - 03/22/18 01:18 AM
Posted By: Matt28
Re: hen or rooster? - 03/22/18 02:15 AM
I say the red one laying down in the bottom pic is a rooster
Posted By: Law Dog
Re: hen or rooster? - 03/22/18 03:03 AM
It's an art that few can do really it's a Asian specialty often, I got 30 chicks a few years ago and gave 12 to a landowners wife and they lucked out and got 11 hens and 1 rooster the only one in the bunch.
so from what i have read and seen i have 3 roosters and one hen...lol....but i will let you guys know in a few months!