There are many chicken owners who often wonder what sex their baby chicks are. Sexing chicks can be very important to owners, some people don't want to watch roosters fight and possibly injure each other in the attempt to establish dominance, or perhaps more simply owners want to own a flock of just hens to collect eggs each day to eat or to sell.


There are a variety of methods of sexing chicks. Below you will find a selection of useful methods:


Sex-Link Color
A sex-linked chicken is bird whose gender can easily be determined at the time of hatching due to females and males being different in color. Disregarding any genetic mutations, you can expect the following to be accurate:


A barred hen with a non-barred rooster = Expect barred males & non-barred females
A gold hen with a silver rooster = Expect silver males & gold females
A barred rock hen with a rhode island red rooster = Expect spotted males and solid black females


Feather Sexing
Sexing chickens through the feather sexing method is not difficult, nevertheless it requires the chickens to be bred to display their sex in differences within their feathers as baby chicks. Typically male chickens within these breeds usually have longer wing pin feathers than female chickens do, which ultimately makes them considerably easy to tell apart. The majority of chickens do not have these feather traits bred into them, which means all the chicks are identical at birth to all but the skilled keen eye of a professional chicken sexer.


Vent Sexing
Vent sexing chickens when they are chicks is a simple method which was originally popularized in the early 1930s by a Japanese professor, named Kiyoshi Masui. Individuals who are incredibly well trained at chick sexing schools can persistently and effortlessly attain over 95% accuracy. This sexing method involves holding the baby chick carefully upside down in one hand while visually examining the area of the chickens vent for the absence or absence of a male sex organ.


This method in theory sounds far easier than it actually is. After being taught the fundamental  basics of this method from non-professionals, a majority of owners would be doing well just to obtain 60 to 70% accuracy at the most. Nevertheless, if interested, there is a vast amount of information readily available that can be obtained online. The majority of commercial hatcheries that sell baby chicks either cockerels or pullets are known to utilize this method.


Watch them grow
The easiest, cheapest but undoubtedly timely way to determine the sex of your chicks is to simply observe your chicks grow. In males, it’s recommended to look out for a larger comb, significantly pointer tail feathers and crowing. Female chickens usually have smaller, tail feathers that are particularly more rounded towards the ends, smaller combs and obviously they lay eggs.


Feed your chicks, water them, keep observing them and enjoy them as they begin to grow and mature. As they slowly begin to develop, changes in their appearance will soon become obvious. Things to look out for are male chickens will begin to act manly and their chick-like chirping will change to crows. In nearly all types of chickens, the feathers of young males will also change from the typical round oval-shaped feathers (that hens and young chicks have) to shiny, pointed feathers.


The combs of young roosters will slowly start to develop at an early age. While this can vary between chicken breeds, this is a very clear distinction between roosters and hens as they grow up and mature. Most importantly, enjoy your birds and watch them develop. This is certainly the most enjoyable technique when establishing your flock.