Newly appeared chicks from a hen must be divided into cockerels and chickens. They should be kept separately, since the mode and quality of feeding for them will be different. The females will be left to lay eggs, and the males will be kept for light lean meat.
Instructions
Step 1
Juveniles are very difficult to distinguish by gender. Weigh the chicken. The cock should weigh a couple of grams more. They also look larger outwardly. Day-old females have a smaller head than males and have a smaller scallop. In cockerels, legs are strong and thicker, the beak is bent more.
Step 2
Lift the chicken by the legs. The cockerel immediately hangs without movement, while the chicken tries to take a normal position, flapping its wings and twisting its head. Grab the young by the scruff of the neck. The rooster's legs hang straight, the hen presses them under him.
Step 3
Gently grasp the beak of the chicken with your fingers. The cockerel will try to snatch it out of your hands.
Step 4
Look at the plumage. The hen feathers faster than the rooster, and his feathers are with some shine. The tail of the cockerel has feathers sticking upward, the hen has a pointed feather on the tail. The wings of mature chickens are covered with even feathers; in cockerels, they are of different lengths.
Step 5
Assess the color of the chicks. Modern poultry farmers breed chickens and roosters of a certain color. Each breed has its own color scheme for males and females. Divide them at once.
Step 6
Look at the chicks' tail. After a couple of weeks, it develops in chickens, in roosters later. The tail of the cockerel has feathers sticking up, the chicken has a pointed feather.
Step 7
Compare the bodies of the young. The chicken has a shorter neck than the rooster. A tubercle of developing spurs is visible on the paws of the cockerel.
Step 8
Observe the chicks at one month of age when external sex characteristics appear. A red beard and a large comb are already visible in the cock, the legs become longer and thicker than in chickens, spurs appear on them.
Step 9
Look at the behavior of the chickens. The males are active, run a lot and fight with each other. Chickens are shy, run sluggishly, squeak and often lag behind the mother hen.
Step 10
Examine the chick's genitals. Press on your stomach, open the cloaca. In the cockerel, a tubercle will be felt on the inner wall, in chickens it does not.
