AlbertaChickensEtc

They are adorable!  I love that you can wing sex some breeds...it's so handy.

Can you explain how you are identifying them? How can you tell sex with the wings?

Has anyone here done this and monitored how accurate you could get? I would be interested in trying this.

I know people that do vent sexing at the university labs here. They can teach me to do that, but they agree that it is very hard to get accurate with it. It takes a lot of practice and time. I would prefer a faster learning curve and a little more accuracy early on.

Another question... Anyone know if marking the legs of chicks with a marker would be at all harmful? Would it even stay on for very long?

I was actually 100% on the 6 we hatched this year.  As there were only 6 and they were a variety of different colours, three wheaten pennies (1M 2F), one barred muffed easter egger (CMxEE) (F), crele penny (M), CM looking Crele penny (M), even though it was dark like the the CM pullet chicks are, it  looked like a roo.  It came out of a marans scale 5 egg and I lost track of whether it was marans or penny .  The males even had no primaries, wings were fluff alone and the comb area was bigger.  For example, in Labmans pic, I'd bet that top left paler yellow chick is a roo, compared to the one on the right.  I plan on separating mine into male and female as they hatch next year (on a much larger scale) as raise them on and see how we did, might as well, I plan to hatch lots!

Congrats on the Labman

Nice, it sure feels good when they hatch, eh?  Beautiful day, CynthiaM.

Labman
I was under the impression that wing sexing only works in breeds that have a male sex linked dominant slow feathering gene? Would be interesting to see what results you get.

" Feather sexing became possible in 1969 after several years of genetic research by the Tegels Poultry Breeding Company. This method used to determine the sex of newly hatched chicks is only possible if a female from a slow-feathering breed is crossed with a male from a fast-feathering breed. The sex of the chicks produced from this cross can be determined during the first 48 hours after hatching by looking at the primary and secondary feathers located on the chick's wings. The primary feathers will be noticeably longer than the secondary feathers on a female chick. On a male, the primary and secondary feathers are the same length. "

Frank

Last edited by shutt40 (2009-11-05 14:34:59)

ADA-BOY

The 7 little Fluff balls are happily cheeping and pooping.
Had two with Pasty Butt yesterday, will continue to moniter and possibly add some Polytonine A to the water.
They are waiting for the new 12' X 16' Coop c/w 6' X 7'6" Incubator/Brooder house and 24' X 18' covered run....4 walls are up, roof rafters and insulation today, should be wired and all inside appliances by Mon.
It's cutting into my Hunting season!!!