Sexing chicks

The 'hens' my daughter sexed are roughly a month old, yet some are lengthening their necks and kick fighting, isn't that more of a rooster thingy?? lol

What method did she use to sex them, Lyn Bar? And what breed are they? I agree - that does sound more like boyish behavior.

She did the wing method, she said?? They are all just mixes. I figured at a month old, I should be able to figure out who is who OR hen from rooster;)

Well, the way I understand it, feather sexing only works on a few specific breeds in which the mothers of the chicks have to have a slow feathering gene while the fathers have normal feathering or rapid feathering genes. A mating between these males and females will give pullets with rapid feathering and cockerels with slow feathering. So this would not be a reliable method to sex mixed breeds.
And I don't even attempt to tell 4 week olds apart. Some of mine like the white Chanteclers need to be about 12 weeks before I can feel confident sexing them.
She may just need to wait a bit longer.

A comment on the statement above - ". . . only works on a few specific breeds in which the mothers of the chicks have to have a slow feathering gene while the fathers have normal feathering or rapid feathering genes."

If we're talking pure breeds, whatever allele (version of the gene) the females have, the males will have the same allele. If it's a sex-linked gene, the males will have two copies and the females only one. There is no breed, and no gene, for which the females have one allele and the males, another.

Feather-sexing works for some pure breeds; for some specific hybrids (see bottom of this post) it also works. However if we're talking about whatever happened to hatch from a mixed flock, you can't really predict sex from feathering speed.

Here's what I posted on the subject on that "other" forum. . .
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Feathering speed is governed by a sex-linked gene, K=slow, and k+ (wildtype) = fast. (two other, even slower, variants exist. I won't go into them right now).

Breeds that have the K allele (and since we're talking breeds, not hybrids, they ONLY have the K allele) will feather slowly, in general. Becasue it's sex-linked, males have two copies (K/K) and females only one (K/-). Because of the dosage effect, males (with two doses) will feather slower than females.

Breeds that have the K allele, so should be feather sexable, are:
Brahma
Cochin
Langshan
Dorking
Cornish
Sussex
Orpington
Australorp
RIR
New Hampshire
Barred Rock
Wyandotte
Delaware
Jersey Giant

Breeds that have the k+ allele, so won't be feather sexable:
Leghorn
Minorca
Andalusian
Ancona
Buff Catalana
Brabanter
Campine

It gets even more interesting with hybrids. If you cross a female from the slow-feathering list (K allele, so K/-) with a male from the fast feathering list (k+ allele, so k+/k+), all the cockerels (K/k+) will feather slowly, and the pullets (k+/-) will feather REALLY fast.

Smiling, just because you see two youngsters having a go at each other, does certainly not mean that they are cockerels. Pullets can be just as fighty as the cockerels, seen that lots of time. Ever seen two hens that are just not having a good day, smiling, they go at each other like they were out for blood, then give up as soon as they find something else to do. It is funny, females like to "play" just as much as males do sometimes.

Ipf has a really good post going on about the slow and fast feathering gene, pay close attention to it, it is really interesting. Have a wonderful and great day, CynthiaM.

I just noticed that my post above was not that clear; I've added a bit to it and hope that improves it. Let me know if not, please.

That K allele is an important component to the Barred Rocks in Australia. It give the crisper, more uniform barring that you see down there. It is sad watching the boys grow though, they out grow their chick down and the feathers are very slow to come in. They can appear quite naked for a long time.

yes I find that interesting too, thanks ipf!
I had read elsewhere that the "straight" lines in the barring take longer to produce. And the boys take even longer to get their "sailor stripes" do they?
i do notice the BRs take longer to feather in than the Dominiques do. The Doms are quite quick to feather but it is a wavy, almost scalloped pattern and that is how they are supposed to be.

Thank you ipf for that clarification. When it comes to feather sexing, I can offer some 'how to' help, but I admit to being pretty fuzzy on the 'why' part! More studying needed!