So, how do you determine the sex of those just-hatched fluff balls in your incubator? And how do you tell a rooster from a hen?
Sexing a chick can be easy (sex link chicks), or it can be a mysterious art form that takes years to perfect (vent sexing).
This article will give you some background behaviors and techniques to help you identify your chickens’ sex.
We hope this will be helpful to those new to chickens and perhaps some of you ‘old timers’ too! Once you’ve read this article, we hope you, too, will be able to tell a rooster from a hen.
Baseline Milestones of a Rooster From a Hen
It is important to have a general idea of what happens when plumage development goes, otherwise. How do you know what you are looking at?
Here are a few milestones to refresh your memory:
- Week 1 – first, feathers start to emerge. Down will be mostly gone by Week 5.
- Week 7-9 – partial molt and developing new feathers, establishing the pecking order.
- Form Week 5-15 – gangly teenager stage – characteristic behaviors are starting to show
- Week 13 – adult feathers starting to come in
- In Weeks 16-20 – growth is slowing down, maturity is approaching. Pullets may start squatting if you pet them. Cockerels will start crowing.
This is not an all-inclusive list. It’s just to give you an idea of the stages of development in chicks.
For a more detailed overview, read this article.
Now you know what to expect. Let’s look at the various methods of sexing chicks before looking at how to tell a rooster from a hen.
Methods of Sexing Chicks
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Vent Sexing
Vent sexing is when the ‘chicken sexer’ expels the poop from the cloaca to see the sexual characteristics of the bird.
People who are chicken sexers undergo special school training to do what they do.
It sounds easy, but in fact, it takes years of practice and is considered to be as much an innate art form as a taught skill.
There are many variables when vent sexing a chick – even the professionals only get it right about 90% of the time.
If done incorrectly, it can cause serious injury or death to the chick – so please, do this carefully and gently and after proper education.
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Sex Links
Knowledgeable poultry people used the down color method of sexing their chicks long before the term ‘sex link’ became common.
It was first noticed and written about by Professor R.C. Punnett. He noted that certain combinations of rooster over hen gave the new hatchling a definite marker for boy or girl.
An example of black sex links is that a solid-colored rooster over a barred female will give you cockerels with a white dot on their heads.
This method of sex will only work on first-generation sex links. If you mate a sex link to a sex link, you will not sex the chick so easily.
In breeds that have a barring or cuckoo pattern, for example – Dominiques or Barred Rocks – breeding will result in boy chicks with a large white or yellow spot on their head.
Some breeds, such as the Welsummer, exhibit dorsal stripes as chicks. In the females, these lines are quite distinct and well defined with a triangular dark patch on the head; in the boys, they are less distinct, a bit fuzzier, and have no head patch.
These breeds are known as autosexing breeds.
Needless to say, if you are mixing breeds, you will have different results from the norm.
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Feather/Wing Sexing
You may hear folks saying that they can sex any chicken by looking at its wing feathers. While it is possible to sex some breeds by their wing feathers, it does not work on all breeds.
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Old Wives Tales
Some of the more arcane ways that folks used to predict the sex of a chick are a needle on a piece of string, a ring tied to a cotton thread, or the shape of the egg.
These methods do not work scientifically. They are simply guesswork – but they can be right 50% of the time!
Sexing Adult Birds (How to Tell a Rooster from a Hen)
Sexing adult birds is, for the most part, relatively easy – as long as you know what to look for!
Roosters are built and clothed to be noticed – the plumage, stance, and crow all say, ‘look at me, aren’t I something?’ This is all to attract the ladies to his side.
Hens are far more conservative in their dressing – less flash, quieter, and warier. This is self-preservation and works pretty well when predators are around looking for chicken dinner!
Comb and Wattles
A roosters comb will generally be a much larger, more developed, and vibrant red. The comb is part of his attraction to the ladies.
They tend to choose roosters with large, vibrant combs as they are good health and vigor indicators.
His wattles, too, will be much larger and redder than hens’ wattles. Again, this is all part of his presenting appearance of being strong and a good male to mate with.
Hackle Feathers
The feathers that flow down the neck onto the shoulders are referred to as hackles. The feathers will be differently shaped for a boy and a girl.
The hens’ hackle feathers will belong with rounded ends. The roosters’ feathers will be longer and pointed at the ends. It gives the appearance of a ‘mantle’ across the shoulders in some breeds.
You will also notice that roosters tend to have more vibrant colors in their plumage.
Hens tend to have muted colors, so they don’t stand out and may avoid a predator’s eye – this is a good survival strategy.
Saddle Feathers
Saddle feathers are something that only the boys have. As the name implies, they start around the area where you would put a saddle on a horse, about mid-back.
These feathers are long, flowing, and pointed. You will notice that they cascade on either side of the tail, leaving a very sleek appearance of coattails.
Tail Feathers
The difference in tail feathers is usually very noticeable. The ladies will have upright tails, rounded at the tips and generally much the same length.
The boys will sport ‘sickle’ feathers at the tail end. They are so named because they resemble the shape of a sickle.
The sickles will grow up and curve over the tail giving a plume-like appearance to the tail.
You can read all about feather differences here.
Legs and Feet
Roosters’ legs and feet are generally more robust than hens’. They are thicker, and you may see spur buds even in a young cockerel. Spurs do not indicate a male since older hens will grow them too.
So, in essence, the rooster is all about his appearance and projecting strength. It is usually reflected in his attitude also.
Hens are dowdy by comparison. Most (not all) females need to blend in with their surroundings very well.
They will sit on a nest for 3 weeks and then care for her chicks, so she does not need to be prominent or visible.
Problematic Breeds to Sex
There are several breeds out there that do not give up their identity easily. It can be several weeks or months before you can clearly state boy or girl.
One such breed is the Breda fowl. The bird does not have a comb. Girls may or may not have wattles – the boys do.
They are slow-growing birds taking their time to develop any sexual characteristics.
Until they start to develop hackle, saddle, and sickle feathers, you cannot be sure, so you are looking at a timeline of 5-6 months before you can definitely sex your birds.
Observing their behavior is likely to give you clues before they start developing the physical characteristics.
A breeder will certainly have some idea from observing the chicks, but it takes time and practice – and even they can be wrong on occasion!
Silkies, too, are notoriously difficult to sex. Again, it is mostly the chicks’ behavior that will give you clues about what sex they are.
There is no quick way to tell the sexes of these breeds without a good deal of practice and observation.
If you are an astute ‘chicken watcher,’ you will have noticed the typical behaviors of the different sexes. These observations can be applied to any breed and will give you a head start on sexing.
Typical Behaviors of a Rooster From a Hen
Hens and roosters do have definite behaviors which can help you sex them. If you have a ‘barnyard mix’ as I do for my layers, the more traditional methods of sexing often don’t work so well.
Roosters will be more assertive and bolder – they are usually upfront with the pullets behind them. They will stand more upright and, if startled, will stand their ground and chirp.
They are more curious and more likely to investigate something new in the coop/brooder.
Hens tend to keep a lower profile – literally. They try to remain unnoticed. If they are startled, they will usually crouch down and remain silent.
When feathering out, roosters tend to become ‘patchy’ while the girls feather in more evenly. The saddle and hackle feathers will develop around week 8 on the boys with most breeds – this does not hold for all breeds.
If you have the time to sit and quietly observe the chicks without them knowing, you will get a good sense of boys and girls in pen from their interactions together.
Another old wives tale is that a pointy-ended egg will produce a rooster while a more rounded egg hatches a hen.
This is not factual and should not be depended upon to determine your chick’s sex. Plus, once you have an incubator full of peeping chicks, it’s pretty hard to determine which chick came from which egg.
Within a few weeks, you can start to see the difference in combs on the roosters vs. the hens for some breeds.
Combs may slightly be more prominent and even a darker shade of red than the hens. At 3 months, some roosters will have spurs or a small nub present on the back of its leg.
Within the first week, some baby chicks begin to display behaviors that scream rooster vs. hen. I’ve witnessed young roos alert chicks to the presence of feed or treats.
Often, not always, young roosters will behave more boldly than the hens in the brooder. In addition, they won’t back down when you place your hand in the brooder, and they may even challenge you.
Identify a Rooster From a Hen Summary
Sexing your chicks can be fun – it can also be frustrating too. I like to watch the chicks interacting with each other.
I have found that this gives me a much better idea of which is boy or girl and what the pecking order will be for this particular group.
If you have first-generation sex link chicks, you don’t even have to break a sweat to tell the sexes apart – the birds make it easy for you.
If you buy from a hatchery and specify what sex birds you want, you will generally get. Remember though. Chicken sexers’ do have a 10% fail rate – hopefully, it’s not your batch!
Personally, I have never even tried wing sexing. Some folks do it with consummate ease, but many struggles with it, especially the first time.
Sexing adults is all about appearance. Roosters tend to exude confidence and fearlessness, while the hens’ are usually more submissive and quiet.
Well, we have given you the basics of sexing your chicks and chickens. Please don’t be disappointed if a particular method doesn’t work for you.
Sometimes you need to try another method or keep practicing the one you want to use until you get it right.
Let us know in the comments below how you got on sexing your chicks…
I have two Polish who are 31weeks. I’m still not real sure. No one has crowed yet, so hopefully they’re females. Ones a white crested and the other is a golden laced breaded.
I have 5 polish x frizzle chicken ad trying to determine sex! They all but one have spurs, only one has comb and wattle, but all others have a comb only one other seems to be more prominant? But one other has a ruckus with the one i know is a rooster! lol Will see how goes, have had 2 same looking eggs so know at least one is a hen? lol
Was hoping for more details on chick’s sexing; as identifying roosters from hens in adults is quite straightforward.
Thank you 🙂
Hi Nuri,
This article focuses on matured chickens, however we will do one on chicks soon 🙂
Claire
I’m sure it’s not your intent but you sound like you’re talking down to the people who are just trying to sex their adult chickens. There are first timers who don’t find it as ‘straightforward’ as you.
hi this article was pretty helpful and gave me some more expectations on how a rooster should act at a young age. i was suspecting he was a rooster by the time we put him in the brooder for the first time because he kept trying to peck other chicks faces a bit. he is a barred rock chick. i have six chicks in the brooder right now (2 golden laced wyandottes, 2 barred rocks, and 2 black australorps) and he out of the 2 barred rocks has the larger head spot by far
The roo-tude has been my best indicator. I take a photo of the chicks and see who faces the camera and who hides. I do it again a couple of days later.. Almost always I see the same one or two chicks facing the camera and they have been my roosters. I had a bantam brahama the size of a large marshmellow and he was already protecting the hens at 4 days old. He’s been a fabulous guy even 2 years down the road. Harmless to me but protective of the girls.The silkies are tough, but I am pretty sure the two I kept out of my 10 are both hens. I haven’t caught them laying or crowing and they are 6 months old. It has been bitter cold though.
This was helpful
I’m glad you found it useful Julia 🙂
I have 7 chicks that are 7 weeks old, 2 RIRs, 2 Speckled Sussex and 3 Buff Orpingtons. I’ve moved them to their coop and they are adjusting well. 2 of the chicks, 1 SS and 1 BO appear to be roosters by their behavior, comb, wattles and a bit by their feathers. My town does not allow roosters in backyard flocks. Is there a better age to pull the roosters from the flock? I’m worried about the hens missing the boys – even though they haven’t crowed yet or tried to mate, as best I can tell.
I have a Rooster Rescue contact, but it makes me sad to part with these guys.
Should I wait until they crow to be sure? Will the hens miss the protection they “provide”?
Thanks in advance for any help.
When do roosters begin to develop the comb and waddle? I have a chick that acts different from all the rest. It has a red, spiky beak and little red circles under its neck. It’s about 5 weeks old. I am thinking it’s a rooster, but I don’t know for sure. Can you help?
I have 5 mixed breed (mutts) chicks that were hatched in my son’s kindergarten class. They are 8 weeks old and I cannot rely on any breed specific appearance characteristics. The one that acts most like a hen and has the smallest comb also has what look like sickle feathers developing. The one that acts most like a rooster has pretty indeterminate feather patterns. It is getting a fluffier around the head, so it might have some hackles developing, but I’m really not sure.
Thanks for this, my wife and I have a small 20 acre property in Victoria, Australia. We have chickens and are trying to tell them apart at the moment. I am pretty sure we have four roosters and one hen! Gonna test your theories tomorrow and see if I can better identify them. Your chickens are beautiful! We have several different breeds. Most are hens and as our luck would have it our rooster is a jersey giant. Is there a way to safely and completely remove spurs? I have 2 small children and I m so afraid they will get hurt. Thank you!
I have 15 chickens about 14_wks old…. I have a variety that I bought from a hatchery. I have one white sussex and having a hard time deciding if it’s a ten or rooster. It’s combs and wattles are bigger than the rest but has absolutely no signs of spur buds and when anyone goes in the co-op it seems the most scared and will actually hide underneath the nesting boxes that hang off the wall. Any ideas to tell for sure ?
The article details some ways you can tell, but a bigger comb usually points to rooster.
Claire
Itanyat’s the only white sussex I have .I have 5 americauna and one blue bell and two red sex links two those island reds and three black austrolorps…. It’s just hard to tell cuz no other of the same breed to compare to
Try searching photos of the breeds and comparing.
Claire
how can i tell acockerl from a hen i rhode island reds
Hey Eden! There is a safe and effective way to remove spurs on a rooster! I’m 17, and have done it a lot. All you have to do is flip the rooster on its back, grab a pair of pliers and grip around the spur. You apply some pressure, and move the pliers back and forth, and the spur will come right off. It’s kind of like a shell when it comes off, it’s hollow on the inside. There may be a little blood, but use blood stop, or regular flour to stop the blood if you’re worried. Hope this helps! If you need a demo, look up hoe to remove spurs on YouTube! There’s plenty of videos on how to do it like I do!
Is there any special way to determine the sex of golden comet chicks?
I have five silkies they won’t let me touch them they pretty much run away today I had to remove the males I assume they were they crowed all ther time since I removed three the two I kept are acting bummed they are sleeping in different areas when normally they sleep together I’m worried they are sad any ideas what I can do
I have 6 chicks, 12 days old. I think either 1 or 2 are roosters. All of them have developed significant tailfeathers, but one. This one with no tailfeathers and a fluffy butt has a bigger, manly looking head, as if the muscles that run out behind his eyes are bulging. He’s got to be a rooster. I haven’t heard anything about rooster chicks having bigger heads, but have heard the tailfeather theory. Then, there’s one that’s way bigger than the rest, hatched first, has beautiful feathers forming a V on the saddle, and possibly developed tailfeathers a little later than the bunch – maybe another rooster? Fun to guess… 🙂