Rooster means male. If the sex organ is can be seen in the vent, it will look like a small pimple and the chicken … A male chicken is considered a cockerel before one year of age. After that you need me to look at them. When that happens, you must look at the bird for clues. Watch your hens behavior – is she happy go lucky as a pullet, eating and minding her own business, or has she become glued to the hip with a rooster? This methods are not scientific and do not work. Also after about a week females get their tail feathers first. Hands-down, the best way to tell how old your chickens are is to start keeping track of them on hatch day, and as they develop and grow. Now let’s go a little more detailed and look at the difference between hens and roosters, cockerels and pullets. Methods of Sexing Chicks. By week three look for comb redness. Hands-down, the best way to tell how old your chickens are is to start keeping track of them on hatch day, and as they develop and grow. Vent Sexing; Vent sexing is when the ‘chicken sexer’ expels the poop from the cloaca in order to see sexual characteristics of the bird. How to tell a rooster from a hen: Add your tell-tale rooster signs in the comments! But sometimes birds are too young to crow or lay eggs. You can tell by pin feathers on their wings if they are female when thy first hatch. Roosters are chickens too, so that question won’t help much. Now you know what to expect, let’s look at the various methods of sexing chicks before looking at how to tell a rooster from a hen. Most people mean “hen” when they say “chicken.” Hen means a female. The common saying among chicken experts is "if it crows, it's a rooster; if it lays an egg, it's a hen," easily identifies hens and roosters. The process involves examining the baby chicken's vent, located underneath its tail, looking for a genital organ. How Not To Sex A Chicken. There are old wives tales on how to determine if your chick is a male or female, hen or rooster. It is advantageous to know which sex my peeps are in case I decide to sell them, sort, or introduce to my flock. Bonus: record-keeping also allows you to name each of your chickens, because…well who doesn’t name their chickens and want to keep track of each of them!? Filed Under: Homesteading Tagged With: chickens, how to tell a rooster from a hen. Egg Candling – If the egg is fertile, you cannot determine the sex of the chicken. It isn’t an easy task to determine the sex of chickens, in fact, I have spent many years trying to find the best way to determine who is who in my young flocks. Mindy Wood is the founder of Our Inspired Roots, the place to go for inspiration and instruction on homesteading and natural living for better health. The importance of knowing the sex of the baby chicken saves the manufacturer of these poultry products from raising chickens until they are old enough to distinguish the male from the female. Related. Behavior (My second best way to tell) If you have a rooster, this is one of the best ways to tell if your hens are laying. The ability to tell the sex a baby chicken is not an easy process to learn and takes training and experience. Summary Cloacal, or vent sexing is the oldest process that is used today to tell the between day old hens and roosters. Egg candling lets you determine only if … When they are about five months you can tell distinct variations. After a while, it becomes evident that record-keeping is extremely useful when it comes to health records, fertility, and breeding. About Mindy. 2. Then, we mark down the flock and each chicken with their hatch day.