4m x 3m Omlet pen, cube, new auto door still boxed and coop light

[Mollystar]

Having a little quiz, if this is true?

 

The commercial chickens were called somthing like Amberlinks, the male chicks hatch yellow and females are an amberish/brown colour.

 

In a large hatchery they travel on conveyer belts and the yellow males are taken off as well as any deformed chicks.

 

They are then deposited in crates, females are reared for egg laying and the males gassed for falconry/lizard food.

 

Why could I not sex my chickens like this

 

 

[HENthusiastic]

I'm a bit confused. Where is that quote from? I'm not sure what you are saying.

It probably is true though. Sadly.

[Mollystar]

Hi Henthusiastic,

 

I'm chatting on another forum about chicken produced for meat & eggs etc & this is

mentioned from a Jamie Oliver program, I thought some people trained for years to see the differance between chicken & cockerals?

 

It took me until 16 weeks old to notice

[feemcg]

Depending on what breeds are crossed you get sex-linked chicks....when the males and females hatch diffeent colours ( this is different to auto-sexing breeds such as Cream Legbar), e.g. if you cross Rhode Island Red and Light Sussex you get the ginger females and white males. Obviously it is then easy for hatcheries to cull the boys at hatch, rather than wait for several weeks for male characteristics to develop. Other hatcheries have trained vent-sexers......thats a skill in itself!. Heres some that I hatched to let you see the colour difference.

 

[poachedegg]

They are gorgeous!

[The Dogmother]

Mollystar, are you asking this because you intend to breed sex-linked chickens or is it just hypothetical?

 

Sorry to ask, but I can't see what you're asking here.

[chelsea]

My dad has managed a commercial chick hatchery locally for 30 years. Their chicks are for meat for major supermarkets throughout the UK.

 

Males are not gassed there, the males go on to the broiler houses just as the females do. They only destroy deformed birds (crossed beaked/3 legs/2 heads etc)

[Mollystar]

Lovely Chicks

 

 

I was asking because I was discussing the sex of meat birds? & someone mentioned sexing by colour, i had never heard of it

[The Dogmother]

There are usually some good articles about it in Practical Poultry mag around this time of year.