is it a baby hen or a baby rooster?

Question

How can you tell the difference between a baby hen and a baby rooster? do they have any distinguishing differences? if so can somebody tell me what they might be?

Answer 1

Favorite Answer

Hi,

There are not many things you can do to sex this chick, I'm afraid. You will just have to wait for a few things to happen while it's growing.

About 8 weeks old, the males will start to grown their combs, becoming bigger and more red, their body shape changes, the legs become longer, the neck becomes longer. Young females, their combs stay a buff yellow colour, stay very small, their bodies become plumper in shape, these are the things to look out for.

Some people have mentioned both colour of the chick and feather sexing. These only happen in certain hybrid chickens that are bred commercially, you are very unlikely to have these chicks.

Source(s): Poultry farm manager. http://www.quailforum.com/

Answer 2

"Emily H" is right. Some breeds you can tell by the way their feathers are coming in on the wings. But to be 100% accurate you need to check inside their vents. Which I don't recommend you do if you don't know how. It can hurt the chick. Other than that though you just need to wait and see as they age.

Answer 3

Some breeds you can tell by the color of the newly incoming primary feathers, and others breeds you can't tell until they mature.

Some people are able to sex chickens by examining the vent,but you would need to be shown how.

Answer 4

The reality is there are professional chicken sexers, so I guess it's not too easy to distinguish which is which until they get older.