# Self Sufficiency/Living off the Land or Off the Grid > Livestock and Animal Husbandry >  Rooster or Hen?

## Pappy

As a youngster my family raised everything! But one thing I never figured out about the chickens was how to tell if they were hens or roosters when they were chicks. Is there a way or do you have to wait until they are grown to see the difference?

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## nell67

I was taught to "hang" them, wrap your thumb and forefinger (gently) around the chicks neck, if it gives up and just hangs there, it is a pullet, if it fights and kicks it's feet, it is a rooster. It has been about 75-80% effective in determining the sex ( this is how they sex them at Rose Acres egg farm, where the little roosters are then put to sleep)

There is another way to check it,that invovles squeezing the tummy and looking into the "vent" (rear opening). If you do this wrong however the guts come out and you then have to put them to sleep.

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## kyratshooter

As Nell mentioned, even the brooder farms only have 80% success sexing chicks.

Fortunately, when raising a brood on the farm you can easily tell the pullets from the roosters by a couple of weeks age.  By the time they reach eating size at 8-12 weeks the sex is very evident and you can ring the little roosters necks and eat them while saving the hens as layers!

if you let them go longer than 12 weeks the roosters eat more than they cost as meat.

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## Tokwan

Look between them legs..hahahahahaha

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## Batch

> As Nell mentioned, even the brooder farms only have 80% success sexing chicks.
> 
> Fortunately, when raising a brood on the farm you can easily tell the pullets from the roosters by a couple of weeks age.  By the time they reach eating size at 8-12 weeks the sex is very evident and you can ring the little roosters necks and eat them while saving the hens as layers!
> 
> if you let them go longer than 12 weeks the roosters eat more than they cost as meat.


How many weeks before roosters start crowing?

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## Rick

Depends on when they have something to crow about.

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## kyratshooter

> How many weeks before roosters start crowing?


I had one brood with roosters that started crowing at 3 weeks.

Poor little thing scared himself the first time it happened.

It reminded me of the little chicken hawk off the Foghorn-Leghorn cartoons.  

Here was this little bitty chicken not even out of the down yet standing there crowing.

My experience is that the first sex differentiation that is apparent will be the combs growing faster on the roosters than the pullets.  That will start just a few days after hatching.

Roosters are so loud, and become so aggressive, that I finally gave up on trying to keep one.  The ones I have had would attack me when I entered the pen to feed them after they got a year or more old.  Any male creature was considered fair game for a fight.  I was afraid to turn them lose to free range for fear they would kill the neighbors' little lap dog!  

Only hens around my place from now on.  I can buy new brood stock and cycle them through as the older ones stop producing.  The hens make great outdoor pets as well as producing eggs.  It's like having your own heard of small dinosaurs running around the yard.  When you go outside they will run to the porch and talk to you.  You can't tell what they are saying, most of the time, but we have had some interesting conversations about near misses with predators that I could understand perfectly!

If the apocalypse catches us and I have to be totally self sufficient in chicken production there is a little old lady down the road that raises chickens and has a rooster.  I will get some fertile eggs from her and raise a rooster.

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## hunter63

> I was taught to "hang" them, wrap your thumb and forefinger (gently) around the chicks neck, if it gives up and just hangs there, it is a pullet, if it fights and kicks it's feet, it is a rooster. It has been about 75-80% effective in determining the sex ( this is how they sex them at Rose Acres egg farm, where the little roosters are then put to sleep)
> 
> There is another way to check it,that invovles squeezing the tummy and looking into the "vent" (rear opening). If you do this wrong however the guts come out and you then have to put them to sleep.


So that's guy at feed store was doing....all this time I thought he was turning the chick over looking for a ding a ling.....I never saw one....but didn't what to sound stupid.....so never said anything.......LOL

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## crashdive123

Couldn't you just pull down its genes? :Whistling:

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## hunter63

> Couldn't you just pull down its genes?


Bhohahahaha........It's up, up...otta here......

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## nell67

> So that's guy at feed store was doing....all this time I thought he was turning the chick over looking for a ding a ling.....I never saw one....but didn't what to sound stupid.....so never said anything.......LOL


LMAO!, if the guy was turning it over, and looking at it's rear end, he sorta was looking for it's ahmmmm, ding-a-ling, but at that stage that part is not more than a small bump. Bump=ding-a-ling, no bump,no ding-a-ling,lol.

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## finallyME

I was taught by the feed store guy to hang the chick upside down by it's feet.  If it continually does a sit up and won't relax, it's a rooster.  If it goes limp, its a pullet.  I guess same concept, different orientation.  I have done this on two occasions to pick out a set of chicks and have always gotten one rooster.  In fact, I have never been able to just get pullets, I always get one rooster (never two, just one).  One time someone gave me 4 chicks that were maybe 6 or 7 weeks old.  They thought they were all pullets.  I open the box and say immediately, "That one is a rooster".  Like others said, it doesn't take long before you can tell which one is a rooster.  I always wait until they crow....then dinner time.

Now I don't care as much.  I still want mostly pullets, but if I get a rooster, it just means I get to eat one.  I don't eat my hens.  After 2+ years, they are very tough.  I used to feed them to my dog as a frozen chicken-sickle.  But, now I give them to an extended family member's dog as a frozen chicken sickle.

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## Rick

I'm so confused. Wouldn't a rooster be a pullet? What the heck does a hen have to pull? I'm confused I tell ya.

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## MrFixIt

I had been skipping over this thread...now I'm doomed.
 :Hang:

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## nell67

> I'm so confused. Wouldn't a rooster be a pullet? What the heck does a hen have to pull? I'm confused I tell ya.


Nope, a rooster is a cockerel...

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## Sarge47

This is so simple!  You place little tiny urinals in the chicken coop and the ones that use them standing up are the boys!  Sheesh!  And people think I'm just a dumb old city boy!.... :Innocent:

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## kyratshooter

A rooster is a cockerel and a pullet is a hen in the US and GB.

You do not want to get then cockerel mixed up with a capon either.

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## Tokwan

Aren't them chickens?

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## Britcit

Hello,

New here, but saw this question and figured I may be able to help out.

There are a number of breeds of chickens that auto sex (or self-sex). What this means is that when the chicks hatch, the males are one color, and the females are another.

There are also some certain cross breeds that do this as well.

So, unless you have a specific breed in mind that you want to keep, I'd suggest you go for a self sexing one to eliminate the guesswork.

A quick google search for 'self sexing chickens' will give you the list of breeds/x-breeds.

Hope that helps.

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## TXyakr

Article in Backyard Poultry magazine about it:
http://www.backyardpoultrymag.com/de...sex_in_chicks/

I mostly just raised pigs and cattle in past years, the males were much easier to "fix" or alter (when young, older ones where difficult), but they do require more space, don't produce eggs and smell much worse. Here is a fun little slide show put together by the Ag agent in San Antonio, Texas about raising chickens in your backyard:

http://bexar-tx.tamu.edu/files/2012/...s-Chickens.pdf

Now I mostly just "raise" wild squirrels and rabbits in my yard, harvesting them requires special skills and tools but they feed and clean their own "pens" and no local ordinances against slaughter that I know of. Neighbors are kind enough to feed them with generous "bird feeders", pansies and vegetable gardens for wild rabbits. I thank them often, but they just look at me strangely (especially the folks from large cities in NY and NJ), their amusement is my protein.

BTW if you really want to risk ticking off your neighbors raise some guinea fowl. But they are good at ridding your yard of snakes. You may never over sleep the alarm clock again. My neighbors had some of those and I was not happy about it.

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## pete lynch

> ...BTW if you really want to risk ticking off your neighbors raise some guinea fowl. But they are good at ridding your yard of snakes. You may never over sleep the alarm clock again. My neighbors had some of those and I was not happy about it.


I have heard peacocks are great for that too.

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