How do you find the gender of a baby chicken?

Answer 1

Sexing a chick is quite a difficult job to do accurately.

Vent sexing or identifying the sex of a day old chick by looking at its sexual organs is done by very few, well trained people. It takes a long time to learn how to identify the more than 15 different shapes of the cloaca. Chicks are often damaged or killed by squeezing them too hard when done by a novice handler.

Feather sexing is based on feather characteristics that differ between male and female chicks.The feather appearances are determined by specially selected genetic traits (sex-link) that must be present in the chick strain you are looking at. Most breeds of chickens do not have these feather sexing characteristics and the feathering of both sexes appear identical.

The easiest method of sexing chickens by the novice small flock owner is to care for the birds until they begin showing the natural secondary characteristics of their gender. In males, the combs and wattles will become larger than those on females and the head will become more angular and masculine looking. The female will remain smaller than the male and is more refined or feminine looking. When they are about 3 months old toss a hat or plastic plate over their heads while they are active and in the yard then watch, roosters will look up and go on alert, making keening sounds as a warning while the hens will crouch down and stay very still and quiet.