Mollystar Posted February 3, 2009 Share Posted February 3, 2009 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 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HENthusiastic Posted February 3, 2009 Share Posted February 3, 2009 I'm a bit confused. Where is that quote from? I'm not sure what you are saying. It probably is true though. Sadly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mollystar Posted February 3, 2009 Author Share Posted February 3, 2009 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 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
feemcg Posted February 3, 2009 Share Posted February 3, 2009 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
poachedegg Posted February 3, 2009 Share Posted February 3, 2009 They are gorgeous! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Dogmother Posted February 3, 2009 Share Posted February 3, 2009 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chelsea Posted February 3, 2009 Share Posted February 3, 2009 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) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mollystar Posted February 4, 2009 Author Share Posted February 4, 2009 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 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Dogmother Posted February 4, 2009 Share Posted February 4, 2009 There are usually some good articles about it in Practical Poultry mag around this time of year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
