[Sarah Mitchell]

I have just had some wyandotte and silkie banties hatch in my incubator and, with my Incubation and Rearing bible in hand, I thought I would have a go at feather sexing them...

It's so easy and I now think I know which ones are girls and which are boys (and I'm wondering why I haven't tried it before?!   Doh!  :blink:). 

I would love to know if anyone out there has experience of using this technique please and how reliable they have found it. 

Thanks loads

[Nails]

I asked this same question on 24th Jan and got no replies, so i had a look on the internet and found out that.................
•The sex of the chicks produced from this cross can be determined during the first 48 hours after hatching by looking at the primary and secondary feathers located on the chick's wings. The primary feathers will be noticeably longer than the secondary feathers on a female chick. On a male, the primary and secondary feathers are the same length.

I did find a site with picture's but can't see it now, but if i find it i will post it on here for you.

[beulah59]

I've never heard of 'feather sexing' ... is it only for certain breeds?

[joyfull]

not sure how accurate it is (would have thought more breeders would use this method if it was very accurate), I wouldn't rely on it but who knows if you do try it then keep us posted as to how reliable it turns out to be 

[GrannieAnnie]

I don't think it applies to all breeds, but I could be wrong!  When we first got our day old hybrids from the hatchery, they told me that the Goldlines and Babcocks are colour sexed (sex linked?) but the Amberlinks are feather sexed.

[joyfull]

and still the odd boy gets through 

[GrannieAnnie]

In our case only with the Amberlinks.  As its still done by a person, who isn't always 100% reliable!!!      but the most boys we had was 3 out of 250 chicks!!  not bad!

[joyfull]

like you say Annie it is possible with some breeds - wouldn't like to try with the araucanas though  .
I think legbars are one breed that are colour sexed - don't they have a black dot or stripe or something like that and possibly even welsummers are sorted this way as well 

[GrannieAnnie]

Yes you are right Joy, Debbie said that she knew which of her Welsummers were girls and which were boys and someone on here said about the legbars being different colours too. 

As Goldlines (Which are going to be re-named soon and will be called Bovans Brown!) are basically a cross between RIR's and LS and they are colour sexed, I'm going to try it with some of mine to see what I get!!! 

[joyfull]

be interesting to see perhaps you will end up with your very own breed 

[lisa80]

cream legbars are supposed to be auto sex  :)and i found it easy to sex my welsummers at a day old but gets harder as they get older.i think its quite easy if you have a mixture last time we only had 2 with the same colourings ,quess what they were both boys but took me a while to figure it out 

[Foxy]

Feather sexing only works if add in a "fast-feathering" gene so only reliable in some breeds. Some commercial breeds are sexable through feathers but they have been designed to be so.

[Sarah Mitchell]

Thanks everyone for the fab responses

I did some more investigation and it does look as if feather sexing is only possible on breeds which are specifically bred for it. Boo. Guess I will just have to wait for the chicks to grow up!

Cream Legbars are autosexing which means that they boys and girls are different colours (although I still manage to get it wrong with mine but that may just be my optimism and hope for girls overriding my eyesight!!).

I did find out a bit about sex-linking which is where you cross one breed of a certain colour with another of a certain colour to get different colour chicks depending on their sex (like the amberlinks).  Apparently I can create red-sex-linked chicks by crossing my rhodie cockerel with my silver laced wyandotte hen... might try it and see what happens!

Thanks as ever for all the advice.

Sarah 

[GrannieAnnie]

You'll have to keep us up to date with the happenings there Sarah!!!   :happy: :happy:

[Nails]

Sarah
i did find an interesting article on vent sexing, but not sure i want to be sticking my fingers in week old chicks !!!!!