# what breeds can be feather sexed?



## kirsten (Aug 29, 2005)

I was wondering if any of you knew which breeds or which crosses reliably allow one to feather sex? 

Thanks! kirsten


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## RiverPines (Dec 12, 2006)

What species of poultry are you asking about because many breeds of chickens are easy to sex by feathers.
There are chicks where the overall body is different in color based on sex. You have ones that have a spot or some markings that are indication of sex.

Are you thinking of duals, eggers, meat, etc?


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## KSALguy (Feb 14, 2006)

are you asking about sexing at hatching?? feather development in chicks as a sex indicator? other wise all chicken breeds except Seabrights and Campines can be sexed as adults or young birds when the sex feathers start to grow in on the males.


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## Cyngbaeld (May 20, 2004)

If you are talking about wing feathers, you have to cross a slow feathering female with a fast feathering male. The slow feathering gene is on the Z chromosome. (Males being ZZ, and females ZW). Resulting male offspring will be slow feathering and their wing feathers will be different lengths while the females' wing feathers will be the same length.

RIR can be down sexed on hatch. Males should have a larger patch of light down under the wing. Any barred or cuckoo can be down sexed as the males have a much larger white spot on the head than females (except for autosomal barring, which is not sex linked, as in Campines.)


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## kirsten (Aug 29, 2005)

I guess I should have mentioned "at birth."
I hatch and sell chicks, raise barred rocks and black sex link. However, my RIR rooster is infertile right now becuase of frostbite during the winter. He lost all the points on his comb. Well, one left to fall off. I hope that he isn't infertile forever; not just a dud.

Anyway, I was looking for another way to sex chicks. I guess I need to figure out fast feathering and slow feathering breeds to do that. Anyone know some? 

I have a hatch that is 2-3 weeks old and one that is hatching today of barred rocks. I think the spots are still evident on their heads. When I go out, I will compare spots and leg size to see if it seems to hold true. Realistically, I would need to separate and raise them out to see if that is a reliable way to sex barred rocks, by a dominant spot. And how reliable such a method is. I don't know. I will go look.

kirsten


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## KSALguy (Feb 14, 2006)

pure BardRocks are sexable by the spots at time of hatch and by the bar pattern once they feather out, hens will have a darker less distink barring pattern and roosters will have narrow clean crisp lighter colord barring, 

frost bite doe not sterilize a rooster permanintly, once the comb is heald he should be back to his old self, boost his protien to help speed it along


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