Thursday, September 4, 2014

Sexing Chickens: Some Sound Advice


Those who mail order pullets in the cold winter months might be in for a surprise. Many companies pack unwanted rooster chicks around the pullets to keep them warm. Ask about this potential practice before you buy.

The following was written by Carol Bartram. I posted it here with her permission. Her words are both well written and wise. Thanks, Carol!


Hi, Chicken People,

The Chicken Chick has brought together a wealth of information about sexing chickens in this post:

The references at the end are also worth checking out! One of my faves that I didn't see listed is an article from Backyard Poultry Magazine (June/July 2011), also dispelling many of the myths you may come across in feed stores or elsewhere (thanks to Kathy for sending me this article):

In my opinion, one of the most important take-homes is that even professional vent-sexers are not 100% accurate, so please think ahead of time about what you will do if you do end up with a rooster and can't keep him. Unfortunately, you can't assume it will be easy to find him a good home where he will eat off of China plates, or that someone will pay you big bucks to purchase him. Ideally, you will have scoped out some options ahead of time, but if not, the LAST thing to do is to release him somewhere for him to become someone else's problem and give us backyard chicken-keepers a bad name. The SECOND TO LAST thing is to take him to an animal shelter (where he will become someone else's problem, etc...). A MIDDLE thing is to ask me to send out an e-mail looking for a home, or for you to post him on the Hampton Roads Hens Facebook page, where you'll reach a wider number of folks on the Southside who have room for roos. (There are also people who can, relatively humanely, process roos for you, if you choose to go that route. Old Dominion Hay in Smithfield has hosted classes to teach this skill.)

Hopefully, someday residential areas will get rid of their anti-rooster inclinations so that a bit of crowing won't be such a big deal, but I guess we have to get hens accepted first, and I think our efforts at being good neighbors will help a lot. I recently had a good talk with our newest neighbors about our rooster, and to my great relief they said they used to hear him, but now the only time they notice the sound is when somebody new comes to visit and asks if someone has a rooster. Whew --Quercus' lovely crow has faded into the background for them! I can see how a lot of roos talking to each other throughout the day in close quarters might be a different story...

Cluck and cock-a-doodle-doo,
Carol Bartram
Peninsula Chicken Keepers (PeCK)
peninsulachickenkeepers.weebly.com