How to Determine if a Baby Chicken is Male or Female

Unlike mammals, chicks do not have exterior sex organs.

As a farmer, you need to determine which baby chickens will produce eggs and which chickens will be used for meat. Telling the difference between female, egg-laying chickens and male, non-egg-laying chickens is difficult. Some farmers swear that an egg with an oval shape contains a female chicken while an egg with a pointy shape contains a male chicken. While this method might work for some farmers, the only precise way of determining a chick's sex is by looking inside its vent.

Things You'll Need

• Hand soap
• Towel
• Paper towel

Instructions

1. Wash your hands thoroughly with soap and water. Dry them on a clean towel.

2. Hold the chick by its neck with your middle and ring fingers and turn it around so that it's tail is facing the ground.

3. Squeeze the chick's lower abdomen with your thumb to release the feces at the end of the chick's exterior track.

4. Remove any extra feces from the outside of the vent with a paper towel.

5. Pull the vent open with your thumbs and hold.

6. Look inside the vent. If you see a transparent bulb poking out toward the vent opening, the chick is male. If you only see a shallow depression where the bulb would be, the chick is female.

Tips & Warnings

• Just a tip:) If you are scared then that makes your baby chick scared! Please be trustworthy of yourself!

• Really nothing to be scared of just be really light and don't press hard on there neck!

References

• Mother Earth News; How to Sex Day-old Chicks; Beth Bosk; May/June 1974
• My Pet Chicken: How do you tell if a baby chick is male or female?