How to tell girl chicks from boys
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- Опубліковано 19 чер 2020
- Everyone wants to know - is this little chicken a girl or a boy?
There are lots of things that will give you a clue, but how well they work depends on the breed of chicken, including whether it's a slow-feathering heavy breed or a fast-feathering light breed and what kind of comb the adult chicken will have.
In this video I give you some tips about what to look out for and what it means.
For those who want more details about vent sexing: here is the link I mentioned:
www.backyardchickens.com/thre...
For more fascinating facts, hints and tips about caring for your chickens, and the sheer pleasure of chickens, subscribe to my channel: Chickens in my garden - New Zealand
/ chickensinmygarden
Catch up with me on Facebook / chickensinmygarden - Домашні улюбленці та дикі тварини
I have watched 100s of videos of chickens on youtube and have learned more from just two of yours then all combined thanks from a wyoming chicken fan
Thank you. I appreciate that 🙂
Long-time chicken person here. This was very good!
Oh my goodness! I’m so happy to have found your channel. This is so fascinating. Thank you❣️
Thank you. I'm glad you enjoy the videos.
As always, your insights are enlightening and joyous to watch! 💕
Thank you so much 🙂
I would love to watch a genetics video about the slow feathering gene!! Thank you again for sharing your knowledge.
This is such a thorough and fun-to-watch video!!! Very informative!!! Thank you so much!
Thank you so much. It always brings a smile to my face when I hear that people enjoy my videos.
Have a great day 🙂
I love your videos, they're always so informational and interesting. Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge! :)
Thank you. I do find this whole subject fascinating. And the chickens are cute🙂
Best video I have seen on this topic. Much more informative.
Thank you for the compliment 🙂
Have a great day!
Thank you for all this great information! I love your videos!
Thank you. You are always one of the first to watch them 🙂
Love all the tidbits on the genetics. another great video.
Thank you. I have to admit I love the way that genetics can answer my 'but why?' questions. 🙂
Wow! I need to watch this abiut 20 times. Thank you!
And then your chicks will be a really tricky breed I didn't mention 😀
I got my chickens when they were girls bantams 6weeks old and the breeder knew by the combs being smaller, So I can see it in chicks that are about 4weeks old, do like the coloured markings on the small chicks - brilliant video thanks
Thank you. There is so much to learn about chickens!
Thanks! This really was helpful and enjoyable to watch. Even after several years, I still have a time trying to figure it out. J:o)
Some of them are definitely harder than others.
I subscribed, best chicken vid I ever watched!
Ah I see you have seen it. I hope it didn't dash all your hopes for your Wyandotte 🤞
@@chickensinmygarden it didn’t, actually it made me feel more like she is a hen because her comb and wattles are small, comb light orangish, wattles, light pink but small, feathers, highly hen-like, thank you so much, this video was sooo informational, I loved it! We also have anacondas, and that helped to! You have a great channel!
@@snowstormmoon4917 Thank you 🙂
Excellent content. Thanks very much
Thank you, and thanks for watching.
Great information, thanks 👍🏻
Thanks for watching 🙂
Great video, thank you!
Thank you very much 🙂
Excellent! Thank you!
Thank you 🙂
Thanks for the great sharing
Thank You 🙂
I'm really glad that I've found your channel! ^_^ I'm very new at this, first eggs in my incubator will be hatched in just 2 days and I'm very excited about observing them. As a Vet Tech and Biology student I'm very thrilled to watch your videos especially about genetics, please keep them coming. Thank you!
Thanks for your comment. What an exciting time for you! And it's the most difficult part - just to watch and be patient and let those chicks do their hard hatching work all by themselves. Best wishes for a good hatch 🙂
Thank you
I always love your videos 👍I was waiting to see the wing feather shape, but maybe it was not a true test. Where you has fast n slow feathering was as close as you got. Something about the primary growing in a different pattern, rounded vs pointy.
Yes I think that might also be only for a particular breed, although I've never actually been able to tell the difference at all even when people show me pictures that they say shows the difference.
Ha! The one at the end jumping in the food dish is definitely a boy. ;)
He has attitude!
Very interesting
Helped me feel more confident that I have hens and not roos!
That's good - on both counts! 🙂
Omg X I love how baby chickens look, very cute ♥️♥️ also, if it is not a problem, could you let me know what breed this chicken is at 3:57 ?keep up the great videos 👍😄
The black and white chicks? They are Anconas. They grow up to be stunning black and white chickens- great layers. You can see them grown up in quite a few of my videos, including this one
ua-cam.com/video/nqVVbBqruJs/v-deo.html
I've been watching your series on genetics because I hope to eventually breed Red Orpingtons. I've got a long way to go to learn everything before doing it but biology is my most favorite science around so I pray with enough inquiring, reading, watching, and studying, I can become a qualified breeder of that gorgeous rare breed.
What a wonderful idea. We so need people who are devoted to a breed to protect and improve that breed for the future. Please do take qualities like egg-laying productivity and robust health into consideration when you are selecting your breeding groups each year. (Many 'show' breeders only consider how the bird looks.)
I wish you every success 🙂
@@chickensinmygarden Thank you so much for your reply! I am quite a way from breeding Red Orpingtons, simply because I learned that my RIRs are "production" reds. (They are INCREDIBLE layers and out of my 8 hens they are still consistently laying 6 a day! It is mind blowing to me when I see others are in the lull for the season.).
Anyway, I may ultimately end up keeping my hatchery birds for eggs to consume, and then buy 8 true breed RIR hens and 1 true Rooster before I start to breed. I would love to breed the English Buff Orpingtons with a true RIR red (non production hatchery version) to make my Red Orpingtons. Still have a TON to learn but still.... A red orpington would be an amazing layer, yet a hopefully friendly bird who would hopefully be a great broody, or mama!
So sorry so long. Just excited and want to learn as much as I can. Thank you so much for your kind words!
Since you will be using the RIR purely for the colour, what would be the disadvantage of using your production reds? If the colour is acceptable, you might also retain some of their laying ability.
Thank you!
Thank you 🙂
So cute.
Thanks 🙂
Thank you for this informative video, even after 3 years! Unfortunately I’m still so very confused on my birds, since they are many breeds/types and ages. Plus, the feed store I purchased some from are badly labeled, so it’s truly a surprise to find out what you even got, or what sex they are!
Indeed, mixed breeds and cross-breeds make things very difficult! I can take a good guess but there's still the odd one that surprises me. My husband always says "They will either lay or crow" and he's right 😀
Thanks a lot for the great content! Perfect as usual. 👍
My boys clearly identified themselves while still were cute young chicks, visually indistinguishable from girls - they immediately began to fight! 😂
(Now the question is what to do with the boys if you are not allowed to keep them in some cities in New Zealand?)
Some people grow them up for the table but I've not been comfortable to eat mine. In fact I don't eat any chicken.
I have given some to a friend who needed to slaughter them himself because there was no halal butcher in our area.
Since we moved to town, I have managed to find homes for all 7 of the boys I hatched but I might have saturated the market now.
In any case I think the main thing is to treat them with kindness and respect.
Whether you want to keep your "boys" or not, I think those New Zealand cities have some pretty egregious gender insensitivity issues. If an XY human being wishes to claim that it is female, and the rest of society is demanded to accept that "transition" as fact, then it seems highly inappropriate that we are not allowed to presume that at least some of those XY chickens would not also wish to claim to be female. Therefore, to err on the side of greatest diversity acceptance, just tell the authorities that the possibility exists that every single one of your XY chickens might wish to claim female identity, and that for you to presume otherwise, even in a single case, and wrongly send a transfemale chicken to the butcher shop, would be an unpardonable transphobic hate crime of epic proportion. 🐓--->🐔
Thanks
I just found your video, I always was told by thr hatchery guy "women are odd, men are even" regarding the wing feathers now I understand why!! But its easy to remember. How about heritage breed turkeys? Does the bald shoulder work for them too?
That's a fascinating question. But I have no idea of the answer. Do let me know if you find out
I have a lot of Blue Laced Red Wyandottes and they are really difficult to tell for so long. They are really really slow to feather and it takes a really long time to notice roosters. I still get my guesses in to see if I'm right or not and I'm pretty good at it. By stature, comb and feathering. I still am hesitant to sell any roosters for fear of them being pullets when I really want more hens. LOL
Hah! I'm the same way! I had one Wyandotte I called Charlie, with big red comb and wattles, that I just kept wondering about, until she started laying 🙂
Very informative. I'm raising Rhode Reds for eggs. I have never known how to sex chicks. Now I do thanks to you.
Love your accent!
Thank you. Good luck. RIR are wonderful chickens.
It isn't as easy to tell with my Ayam Cemani breed. Nor my silver-laced Wyandotte, and good for me, mine are a mix of the two. Until the tail feathers start cascading or not and the comb becomes more pronounced it is not easy. I noticed differences in how they grouped together. Which chicks paired or grouped together, and the attitude and way they waddle around. The roosters were more adventurous, and less concerned with what the older hens or the rooster thought about thier presence. Next time I think I will know sooner, because I picked out the two roosters accurately without knowing it until the tail feathers cascaded.
With the Wyandottes - watch the wattles. That's how I tell first.
@@chickensinmygarden Yes! After a bit you can tell the males got more bumps in a wider area on the combs, and the females stayed like a thin line. But I ignored the wattles a bit I think! Great point!
Hi,
I was wondering if you could help me with my problem.
We already have a Silkie rooster but we think that one of the Brahma chicks is a boy. So would it be okay if we could keep the two roosters for 7 hens the hens are a mix of heritage breeds!
Thank you
Well there are a few aspects to consider
- If you have different roosters mixed with your hens you will not know who is mating with whom and won't have purebred chicks. If you are not breeding or don't care about purebreds then this is no problem.
- The ratio of two to seven is a bit high and you might find that your hens suffer damaged feathers or even wounds from over-mating. Actually over-mating can happen even with one rooster especially if he has a favourite hen, so it's something to watch out for anyway.
- The two roosters might fight all the time in an effort to prove dominance, causing injury to each other and stress to the hens. On the other hand they might sort it out after a few scraps and live peacefully together. Mostly people give each rooster his own separate flock and fence them apart but sometimes they sort out a division themselves.
- The amount of crowing they do will be lots more than just twice what one rooster does.
It is certainly possible to keep more than one rooster in a mixed flock and you might find it works for you. You can always take a wait-and-see attitude but be ready to remove either rooster if the problems become intolerable.
Good luck 🙂
@@chickensinmygarden thank you 😀
Thank you we have 10 chicks so need to know what Granger they are. Sorry for bad spelling
I hope this helped. Good luck 🙂
one of my gold laced wyodottes from the hatchery is slower to feather, all are about 4 weeks old, should I be worried yet lol? great videos!
Keep a close eye on the pinkness of the comb and wattle. If you have one boy amongst the girls he will be easy to spot.
But don't do anything drastic until you're sure.
@@chickensinmygarden so where the beak meets the top of the chicks head is pink, the comb? different from the 4 other "hens"...and its shoulders are not feathered yet all the others are. Your videos help so much, I love the knowledge u give. My cousin has a nice big farm for this rooster, if she is a he, I will give her a chance, first crow I will make the move, I my town allows for hens, not sureabout roosters, and my neighbors may hate me lol....thanks....
Is it always the case with boys having less feathers if theyre heavy breed?
It's always the case that the boys have less feathers if they are a slow feathering breed, and as far as I know all the heavy breeds are slow feathering.
❤️❤️
Thanks
I am thinking of letting one of my hens hatch a batch of eggs for the first time...she is in a coop with LOTS of other hens and a rooster and the nest boxes are up high off the ground. Will the chicks be o.k. in this environment with their mom?
Not a good idea.
She needs to be broody.
She should be somewhere dim, quiet and comfortable.
You don't want other hens adding fresh eggs to hers.
She needs to have food and water nearby.
The chicks will need to be somewhere safe where they won't fall and injure themselves, get separated from mum, or drown in the water.
The chicks will need special chick food that is probably not suitable for your other hens, and they need food and water in low dishes they can reach.
A mama cat or dog would cope because she can carry the babies and feeds them with her own milk. But chickens are not mammals 🙂
about 50 years ago (I’m 77 now) there was an Easter display in a store window. After Easter they were given away. I got 2. Speck & Puff. Easy until they learned how to fly. not good!! so We took them to a barnyard display and snuck them in. Went back a couple of wks later and they were gone.😢. I didn’t ask where they went. Sad. Susan D.
Oh, did you ever have chickens again?
how about their reaction with a distructing sounds?
It's supposed to be that a female will crouch while a male will stand up straight and look, but I haven't found it to be reliable - the same chick will react in different ways at various times and even a consistent tendency seems to depend more on the chick's personality than their sex.
Have you found it useful?
Such a pleasure so many different breeds and you know what they are! We wanted French Blue but someone gave us a different breed cock (we don't know what he is) so our girls are now having mixed breed chicks in the broody pen! 2 and 3 days old now!
Aww! Baby chicks are so gorgeous!
And mixed breed chickens can grow up to be beautiful too.
Thank you for this informative video - however I have Silkies who are apparently difficult to sex! My 2 (first ever hatch) were different so I thought one female one male - one had wattles one didn't, one confident one not, one always vocal one not, one muscular one not - then 20 weeks they both crowed. Sadly must give one away because of the neighbours, hopefully one won't crow so much.
Yes, indeed - Silkies are probably the most difficult breed to sex! And it's often the case with two boys (even if there are girls too) that one is more advanced and assertive than the other. Once the dominant one leaves the quieter one suddenly finds his voice.
Their personalities often change at puberty.
I had one pair who, once separated, the less dominant one became quite loud and aggressive while the first one stayed calm and confident.
So if you can try not to decide which one to keep and which must go until they are mature and have a flock of their own each.
Good luck for more girls next time
I would love to have a rooster with my hens to hatch my own chicks, but with very close neighbors I don't keep one. However my son who lives in northwest Florida has fertile eggs I can get at any time. The only problem with that plan is he has a limited number of breeds. I could take a couple of my favorite hens to his place and have him isolate the rooster of my choice with the hens and get the eggs I want to hatch. That's such a pain to do I reckon I'll just go with his mixed breed eggs.
Maybe your neighbours would agree to a short visit from a rooster.
@@chickensinmygarden The son who lives here is the neighbor that insist on no roosters. He doesn't want to be awakened at daylight by a rooster on his days off work. The other neighbors probably wouldn't mind.
Perhaps you could persuade him to go away on holiday in the spring 🙂
@@chickensinmygarden He never goes away for more than a couple of days. He's a bachelor homebody and very set in his ways. At this time I have 3 layers, 10 about to start laying in September and 6 that are a little over a month old, I really don't need a rooster right now. My layers are Black Star in their third year and the 10 are the ISA Browns, the 6 are 2 RIR, 2 Olive Eggers, and 2 Amberlinks. The Black Stars are now only laying several eggs each a week, so since they are a sex link hybrid they are on their way out of laying all together. They are beautiful healthy hens with bright red cones and wattles, I'm hoping the shorter days are the cause of decrease, but being they are the hybrids and are 3 yrs old I'm doubtful.
I enjoy our discussions so much I wish you were in calling distance. The knowledge you have gained over the past few years of having chickens makes me know you did your homework before starting a flock. It's also obvious you are very intelligent and truly care for your birds.
I just watched your ice cream video and it looked so yummy. I've always cooked my yolks into a pudding and added to the cream. I can honestly say I have never eaten a egg that wasn't fully cooked. My husband and sons always ate theirs sunny side up. I suppose my upbringing is the reason I don't eat eggs or meats that aren't throughly cooked. Growing up we didn't have refrigeration and the ice man didn't come out to the farm very often. We lived way off the beaten path and with no close neighbors it wasn't worth his efforts. Our pork was smoked and some other meats packed in rock salt. Throughly cooking all meats was the safest option for most families in our area. My son's take me out for mother's day every year to a steakhouse and I'm the only one who orders my steak well done.
Wow, with all those Isa browns you must be getting lots of eggs! Do you sell them?
In the past I did try selling some eggs and donated the proceeds to the SPCA (otherwise the tax implications were too much hassle) but I found that my customers wanted a guaranteed regular supply that I struggled to meet with my few hens.
Hello,
Are pure wyandottes slow feathered ?
Yes 🙂
@@chickensinmygarden so a rule of thumb
Females have complete feathers
While males are lightly feathered if compared at the same age ?
That's right. In particular what I notice most in the males is their shoulders - still just chick down , no feathers
@@chickensinmygarden i didn’t quite understand what you mean.
Where is the shoulder located ( the start of the limb)
If you can further clarify id really appreciate it.
Sorry - the shoulder is not a technical poultry term. I was meaning below the neck where the wing joins the body. If the chicken was a human and the wings were arms, then the bare area would be the shoulders.
In the video between 6.20 and 6.40 you can clearly see a couple of males with just grey fuzz on their shoulders, whereas the female at 6.45 has feathers all over.
I think I have an intersex eh...roosterhen. She started female, and now is a rooster with a super wide body, spurs, and no comb, doesn't really crow, clucks like crazy, but has very thick legs and is almost as big as a turkey with a turkey-like face and no wattle. My kids say she's very ugly (I still love her). What happened to my bird? Her brother from the same clutch looks like a fairytale rooster with black and green feathers, a massive comb, black legs, a brownish red head, and he's half her size. They are both 6 months old.
It's certainly possible for a hen's ovary to get damaged, perhaps from an infection. She would then stop laying and might start to crow.
But my guess from your description would be some more systemic anomaly, like a cross-breed of some sort.
It will be interesting to find out whether she lays eggs, when the season is right. If so, then she's just a funny-looking hen 🙂
Ma'am, can you tell me how to stop your hen from going broody.
Of course I can - I have done a whole video about that - check it out 🙂
@@chickensinmygarden Thanks. I would look that up.
Can you tell by the feathers of 6 day old chicks? They are not all the same breed.
Hmm. Not really.
With some breeds it is possible to tell by the colour of the feathers as soon as they start to get their actual feathers but there are very few breeds that it works for - see the 7 minute mark on this video.
With some breeds you can tell by the pattern on the chick down but again you need to be familiar with the chick down pattern for that breed.
And of course it's always easier if you have several chicks of the same breed and both sexes.
@@chickensinmygarden Thanks so much for the reply! I just hatched out some chicks that came from a flock with a few different breeds. I see videos that act like the feather length works for all chicks but wasn’t sure. Guess I’ll just have to do it the old fashioned way and wait and see.😄
@kimberlyearly8918 My husband always says "They'll either lay or crow and then you'll know".
Meanwhile, enjoy those little cuties 🐥🐥🐥
Panic! Rooster 😬
God bless you sweet woman 🙏
Unfortunately not many people want roosters. At least- not as many as the hens.
@@chickensinmygarden i know. Poor roosters. But we all know why. Love them all!
Thank you....CLEAR AS MUD !!!!!!
Hello
Can 🙏 you please do a genetic video about bantam, silkies, frizzles and naked necks!?
I don't know much about any of those, I would have to do some research. It might take a while
@@chickensinmygarden my new obsession! The frizzle naked neck with a bow tie is called a "showgirl" and the naked necks all the way naked breast is called a "stripper" VERY RARE and sought after.
I'd love to learn more about it from someone like you! 💖 I know the TURKIN or Transylvania bloodline is used somewhere in there to create the naked neck.
Personality wise like a small DOG not a chicken! Beyond friendly! 💓💓💓💓💓
I'm pretty sure that naked necks are not available in New Zealand. But silkies and frizzles are.
@@chickensinmygarden can I ship 🚢 eggs overseas?! I totally will 🤣❣️
You probably can but no-one in New Zealand can receive fertile eggs without a biosecurity permit. And they cost 100s of 1000s of dollars which is why no-one except the two commercial egg companies do it.
when i was a boy many years ago, they used to have to employ a guy who could sex chicks. he was about 90% or better.
that was a good thing because feeding all the chicks to adulthood was expensive.
they asked the sexer how he did it. he said a feeling just came over him and he could tell. probably he was working from a lot of visual clues that he himself didn't know.
what they do now is separate by size about 2 or 3 weeks before butchering. maleness doesn't come in until later so the meat is still soft.
and of course what they used to do a long time ago is make capons. you don't see capons anymore at all.
it was a very good vid. and i found it very interesting, even though the only time i'll ever see a chicken is at dinnertime.
one thing i didn't hear was behavior. that probably only comes into play for fighting chickens or what is known as game cocks.
i don't know if it's really true, but with game cocks if you see 2 chicks fighting they're probably both female. not to worry. chicks don't fight to the death.
Very interesting. Thanks for sharing 🙂
Have a great day!
I’ve noticed in some of your videos one of your chickens has a droopy comb, is it a genetic thing or is it sick?
She's probably a leghorn or an Ancona - they have huge combs that, on the hens, flop over to one side. The leghorn rooster has a comb that is even bigger but it's fleshier and it stands up.
@@chickensinmygarden thanks, I’ve been trying to research it but all I get back is that if a chicken’s comb is droopy it’s sick.
Well that would be true for a breed that is supposed to have an erect comb.
The colour of the comb would also give you a clue - bright red is usually healthy, purple means respiratory problems or anaemia, pale pink means anaemia or moulting, black if frost bite etc.
If the baby chick has a black feather on his/her wing This means it's a boy/Rooster And if the baby chick has a white feather on his/her wing This means it's a girl/Hen
Probably not.
100th coment
Thanks 😮 love baby chick so much I’ll see you later if’ i❤can. Get your number later bye love love 😊
The radical left needs to see this video.... two genders people!!!
Long-time chicken person here. This was very good!
Thank you very much, I appreciate that 🙂