Chickens, apart from being one of the most common and numerous farm animals, are one of the most popular animals playing a role as a pet, even a domestic one. For this reason, we find it very interesting to be able to tell you how to differentiate the sex of their young, the chicks.
This sexing can be quite complicated in some types of hens, essentially in those of a very small size, since handling is more difficult of the chickens without damaging them and being able to make the pertinent observations. If you want to discover how to tell if a chick is male or female, keep reading this article on our site.
How to tell if a chicken is male or female at home
There are a number of methods widely used by those who raise chicks. There are different alternatives, being more or less easy to carry out depending on the experience and the breed of the animal, each of them being advisable at a certain age of the chick.
Feather Length
The first one is the observation of the down. One of the big differences depending on the sex of the chick is that, while wing feathers in males are almost the same length, in females this length varies much more.
To be able to observe these differences, it is necessary to stretch the wings of the chick very subtly, making the feathers separate and seeing the length of all of them. This technique is only valid as a sexing method in chicks as young as 1-2 days old.
Feather color
Second, we find the sexing technique based on the color of the down. In this case, females have heads of a darker color, also having stripes or dark spots on the body. In the case of males, the head and possible stripes or spots are light in color.
BodySize
Finally there is the possibility of determining the sex of a chick based on its body size. This method is applicable when chicks are between 3 and 4 weeksold. By comparison, males have both larger heads and bodies than females.
If you have just adopted a chick or are thinking of adopting one, you may find this other article on Names for Chicks on our site helpful.
How to differentiate a male from a female chick - Industrial Techniques
The above are techniques popularly used by people who traditionally have chickens and are used to treating them. However, more specific and exhaustive techniques are used at the industrial level.
One of these techniques requires a specific instrumentation, which consists of an optical vision device that is inserted into the large intestine of the chick. From there you can see which are the genital glands present, in the case of males two testicles, in the case of females one ovary.
On the other hand, there are methods based on biochemistry. To carry them out, it is usually taken into consideration that it is a chick of a very exclusive breed, since the technique itself is especially expensive. In this case, sexing is performed by performing a genetic characterization, analyzing the chick's DNA, so the result is completely accurate.
To help you raise your chick, you may find this other article on What do chicks eat? useful.
How to tell if a chicken is a rooster or a hen: vent examination
Another of the most effective techniques to determine the sex of a chick is the examination of the cloaca. In order to perform this test correctly, it is necessary to have a good understanding of the anatomy of each of the sexes. In fact, chicken sexer is a profession that requires intensive trainingthat equips workers with the necessary qualifications to perform sexing properly.
The chick sexing procedure consists of picking them up one by one and carefully pressing on a certain part of their abdomen until who has defecatedOnly then can you ensure that your cloaca will be fully visible. Once this is achieved, the cavity is observed, searching for the possible presence of a lump, indicating that you are dealing with a male chick.
In certain species, the chicks have a series of chained beads or balls: if there is a larger one in the center, it is because it is a male, while if there is not, it is a female.
How to know if an egg is male or female?
We have already seen the possible alternatives to determine the sex of a chick, but can you know its sex before it hatches?
In the industry there are very refined techniques, such as determining the level of estrogen in eggs. However, this technique is slow and expensive, which makes it not particularly profitable despite its great efficiency. Another technique in these cases is spectroscopy by infrared rays, which is faster and more precise.
And at home, can you find out the sex before birth? Well, it's supposed to be. There are certain tricks or guides in popular culture on how to know if an egg houses a female or male chick. They also exist to find out if the egg is fertile or not, as we explain in this other article on How to recognize a fertile egg.
One of the tricks is Pay attention to the shape of the egg, because supposedly those that have a male will be pointed, while if they are rounded are female. However, these types of methods are not at all reliable, hitting more by probability and chance than by being true.
How to sex araucana chicks?
In Araucanian hens, determining the sex of the chicks can become really complicated. Experts normally recommend that if techniques such as cloaca observation, which have to be carried out by professionals, are not used, it is best to wait When ? Well, approximately from the second month of life, which is when the first observable differences between males and females begin to appear.
One of these differences is the crest, which is more swollen and larger in males. The fact that males generally have a less dense plumage than that of females, with their feathers being more showy and longer.
