How to tell a chick’s sex – is it a pullet (female) or a cockerel (male)
We have a new batch of chicks, a cross between silver laced Wyandotte and Buff Orpington, with one Australorp cross. We also have one Brahma/Buff Orpington cross. I like the color patterns, with one of the more yellow chicks having black spots on its head and stripes down its back. The other two in the batch have a similar color pattern, but with the stripe more muted. One is more gray and seems like the entire color pattern is just smeared together. We call that chick Smudge.
As a follow up to last year’s article about chicken sexing, we tried this feather sexing technique on the new batch of chicks. We checked their feather pattern after 2-3 weeks to see if we could tell if they are male or female.
We use wing shape and the type of feather to sex the chickens.
The primary feathers are the feathers closer to the tip of the wing. The secondary feathers are the ones closer to the body.
In a female, the primary and secondary feathers are about the same length, in a convex pattern, a nice sloping curve. No “V” or notches.
And ten days later:
In a male, the secondary feathers, nearer the body, are shorter:
Smudge is likely a male, although he was hatched later than the rest and is smaller. We will need to recheck after a few weeks.
Here is Smudge, 10 days later. Even though it is harder to see, his secondary feathers are still shorter.
This Australorp mix looks definitely like a female.
This one is probably a female but will need to be rechecked in a few weeks.
Let’s look at some others from the same hatched batch. This is a Brahma chick:
This chick is likely a female.
And here is the Brahma 10 days later. Uniform feathers with a curve. Nice coloring coming in on the feathers!
This Wyandotte/Orpington cross is likely a female as well.
Don’t depend on the store! In addition to the above chicks that we hatched from our flock, we bought chicks from the farm store. They were labelled as Red Sex Links and should be all female. A couple of weeks in and they don’t look the same. Two of them have strong feather markings. Looking at them with the above feather sexing technique, at least one of them is a male.
Feather sexing chickens can be challenging and fun. If you are not in a hurry, you can wait and see how they turn out. If they are males, you can always process and eat them at 16 weeks, trade them to a friend, or sell them on FB or Craigslist.
I will update this article with my progress and to see if my guesses on the 10 day chicks are consistent over time.
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