Instructions
Learn to vent sex your day-old chick. This the art of determining sex by turning it upside down to check for the telltale signs of male genitalia in the chick's vent. This technique is used by hatcheries that have hired trained professionals to do the venting. A professional chick sexer has been trained to recognize the numerous appearances of the day-old chick's vent to determine a male chick from a female chick --often a very similar appearance. While a professional is about 95 percent accurate, if you were to learn the basics, you could expect to be 70 percent accurate at best.
Determine if your sex-linked chick is male or female by its color and markings. By ordering (or breeding) sex-linked chicks, you can easily and accurately determine their sex. These chicks are the result of cross breeding chickens that have specific genes for the color patterns of roosters and hens. A black sex-linked female chick is all black, while a male will have a white spot on his head. A red sex-linked female is red, while the male is white.
Check the feather shapes of your young chick for proof of its sex. Again, the genetic trait must be present for this type of sexing to be accurate. Assuming your chick has this trait, the male's wing pinfeathers would be longer than the female's. Most chickens are not bred to have this genetic trait.
Watch your chick develop to determine its sex. There are general rules of development. Female chicks will develop wing and tail feathers sooner than the male chicks. The male will have a more pronounced and redder comb by around six weeks. This male chick will also begin to develop longer, pointed feathers on his neck--his hackle feathers. The female will have more rounded feathers. A male chick will be naturally more aggressive and not as easily startled. He will be larger than the female and have a larger and more angular head. Male chicks will grow longer legs and will develop a spur.
Listen for the practicing warble of your young rooster. This is the inevitable sign that you have a male chicken in your flock. A young male will start practicing his crow, sounding a little strangled at first, as he learns his trademark call.
How to Tell a Rooster Chick From a Hen
If you want a guarantee of only pullets (female chicks) in your hatchery order, it's best to stick to a chicken breed with a genetic coding to make sexing easy. Though hatcheries employ sexers for all other breeds, odds are you may end up with a male (cockerel) for every 10 females you order. If you are hoping to sex your newly hatched chicks yourself, you may find yourself waiting several weeks before you know for sure which will be roosters and which will be hens. Telling a rooster chick from a hen chick is not an easy task.