Male or Female Chicks? 5 Ways to Tell the Difference ~ Homestead and Chill

Last Updated on September 29, 2023

Are you wondering if your chick is a female or a male? Well, you won’t really know until they crow… or, lay an egg! Jokes aside, it can sometimes be tough to say if a young chick is going to grow up to be a rooster or hen, yet there are a number of hints and signs that can give you a good clue. Read along to learn about sexing chicks – with 5 ways to tell the difference between male and female chicks, along with a handy reference chart at the end.

Then be sure to visit our ultimate beginner’s guide on raising baby chicks for more essential tips, including how to set up a chick brooder and best practices on introducing new chickens to the flock.

Sexing Chicks

Young female chickens are referred to as pullets and young male chickens are called cockerels. At hatcheries, trained professionals usually determine the sex of chicks by examining their cloaca (vent opening and sex parts) just after hatching.

Autosexing breeds can be distinguished by more apparent physical features such as color. Then the sought-after female chicks head off to farm centers or customers – but the sexing process isn’t foolproof! It’s not uncommon for folks to end up with an occasional cockerel despite ordering all females.

Speculation and Time

When raising chicks, there’s always a lot of speculation and guessing around chick sex – especially before they reach 8 to 10 weeks old (when the differences become much more apparent). Between imperfect sexing at the hatchery, androgynous individuals, early or late bloomers, those chicks really like to keep us on our toes! That said, there are always exceptions to the “rules” of sexing chicks outlined in this post.

Every backyard chicken keeper has had a suspected cockerel in the group, though it often turns out to be a hen. As a chick, I was pretty darn convinced that Zoey (our current Barred Rock) was a cockerel for many, many weeks. She had really thick legs, stood tall and proud, and was much larger than her sisters. Turns out she’s just a huge bird! So much so, I often call her Big Bertha instead of Zoey nowadays. Here is a list of over 500 cute, unique and funny chicken names – including hens and roosters.

Be patient, give it time, and enjoy those little nuggets while you can. Chicks grow SO darn fast!

Four young chickens sit along a saw horse structure, one is dark black with copper orange feathers around their head, another is golden red, the third is black and white, while the fourth bird is mostly brown with blonde and black accents. A grapefruit tree stands behind them offering protection from predators. — The same four chicks shown in the feature image above – at 15 or 16 weeks old here.

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5 WAYS TO SEX CHICKS

1) Autosexing breeds

With some chicken breeds, you can easily tell the difference between male and female chicks just by looking at them! Certain breeds are considered “autosexing”, where it’s easy to distinguish male vs female chicks by different physical features or markings, even when they’re tiny fluffballs. In the animal kingdom, this is known as sexual dimorphism. Many hatcheries offer autosexing breeds as an easy way to guarantee females.

Autosexing chicken breeds include Dorkings, Crested Cream Legbars, Welsummers, Bielefelders, Rhodebars, and many other less common breeds. Some autosexing chick characteristics are quite obvious: like the distinct dark chipmunk stripes down the back of female Crested Cream Legbars, compared to the lighter body color and yellow head dot found on males.

Other examples of sexual dimorphism are more subtle, and therefore may be more difficult to rely on. For instance, male barred rock chicks usually have larger, scattered or irregular white spots on their head, while female barred rock chicks have a smaller, more distinct white head spot. Yet this can be hard to quantify or compare – especially if you only have one barred rock chick in your flock! (Our girl Zoey had a very large irregular white spot.) Male barred rock chicks also usually have more evenly yellow legs than female barred rocks, who have subtle black or gray on the front of their legs instead.

A birds eye view of two autosexing Crested Cream Legbar chicks. The female has a more prominent brown stripe down the middle of her back while the male is less defined. Autosexing breeds make sexing chicks a breeze. — Crested Cream Legbar chicks (autosexing): female on the left male on the right (image source)

2) Size, Stance, and Legs

Compared to female chicks of the same age, male chicks tend to grow larger and faster. They often stand up taller than their female counterparts too… you know, practicing puffing out their big impressive chests and all! Male chicks also tend to have thicker legs and feet than female chicks.

Four very young chicks all stand next to each other side by side, three of them are all standing about the same height while the chick on the end is standing upright and tall, a possible sign that this chick may be a rooster.

The same chicken is shown at various stages of their life starting at 1 week old and ending at 30 weeks old to show how quickly a chicken can grow. — Pullet development timeline by week (source)

3) Combs and Wattles

Another way to tell the difference between female and male chicks is by watching their combs and wattles develop. Both hens and roosters have combs and wattles. Some hens have impressively large combs, even bigger than roosters! For either sex, a bright red comb is a sign that the chicken is healthy and sexually mature.

Yet the comb and/or wattles on male chicks usually grow sooner and larger (noticeable around 6 to 8 weeks of age) and turn bright red earlier. On the other hand, female chicks combs and wattles usually grow in later (10 weeks or older) and become significantly more red and enlarged in the weeks before they start laying eggs. Hens start to lay eggs around 18 to 20 weeks of age at the earliest.

Sex aside, comb and wattle size varies greatly depending on breed and comb type. For instance, Ameraucanas and “Easter Egger” hens and roosters both have very small pea combs. Their combs look like a piece of chewed up gum stuck between their eyes, rather than a classic tall pointed single comb. Pea combs, cushion combs, rose combs, and other petite combs can make sexing chicks more difficult than other comb types.

Two young chicks are standing erect with their heads up, looking towards something. One of them is lighter brown and gold while the other one is more molted black and white who already as a larger comb growing. — My friend Katja (@my_urban_edible_garden) 6-week old Dorking chicks: female on the left, male on the right. Note the significantly larger comb. It’s hard to tell in the photo, but Katja said his feathers were growing in more slowly than the others too.

A close up image on a baby chick who is 6 weeks old. He already has a fairly developed red comb for being such a young bird, correctly sexing chicks with a comb like this at such an early age is much easier. — This little guy had quite the developed comb at 6-weeks old! Photo via @my_urban_edible_garden

A 6 part image collage of a progression of age for one of our Barred Rock hens. The first image shows a tiny black fluff ball chick at 5 days old. The second image shows the chick at 5 weeks old, some white specks are starting to show up in the black, white spots are visible on the back of her head and her throat area. The third image shows the hen at 16 weeks, more fully covered in the white and black pattern that Barred Rock chickens are known for, however she still doesn't have much for a comb and wattles. The fourth image shows the bird at 26 weeks, a more developed comb and wattles are present but still not fully grown out. The fifth image shows the bird at 29 weeks after he laying her first egg, her comb and wattles are more grown in and have turned a darker red in color. The last image shows the bird fully mature, her comb and wattles fully grown in. — Comb and wattle development by week in our barred rock female Zoey

4) Sexing Chicks by Feathers

Another key difference between male and female chicks is their feathers. Imagine a full grown rooster, with his long majestic neck, back, and tail feathers (also known as hackle, saddle, and sickle feathers respectively). Around the age of 9 to 12 weeks old, male chicks will start to show noticeably longer and pointed saddle feathers. Hackle and sickle feathers start to show around 14 weeks or older.

Hen feathers stay more uniform, short, and blunt compared to rooster feathers. Many female chick feathers grow in more quickly than males however, including faster tail development, so they can appear fully-feathered sooner.

My friend Crystal recently shared this image with me (for a new article on chicken dust baths) and I immediately spotted the feather differences on her young chicks. I predicted that the two with short tails and fewer overall feathers were male, while the center one with a long tail and more back/wing feathers was a female. (They were all hatched on the same day) As they got older, it turns out I was right!

A cartoon image of a rooster with lines pointing to parts of its anatomy with the name of each body part connected to the line. — source

A cartoon image of a hen with lines pointing to parts of its anatomy with the name of each body part connected to the line. — source

A Blue Copper Marans cockeral wih blueish black feathers and copper colored neck feathers is strutting along. Red arrows point to his hackle and saddle feathers which are more elongated than a hens. Sexing chicks with longer hackle and saddle feathers may be easier to determine. — A 12 week old Blue Copper Marans cockerel, starting to display his elongated, pointed hackle and saddle feathers. (source)

A group of four chickens are visible, two of them being the Easter Egger variety, a red arrow is pointing at one of their long pointed saddle feathers which distinguishes them as being roosters. Sexing chicks by comparing saddle feathers can help tell the difference between a hen and a rooster. — Two 14-week old Easter Egger roosters, distinguished by their long pointed saddle feathers. (source)

Wing feather sexing

There is another form of feather sexing that allows poultry professionals to distinguish between cockerels and pullets by examining wing feathers just after hatching. With this method, the feathers on male chick wings are even lengths while female chicks have irregular or alternating feather lengths on their wings. See image below.

Some backyard chicken keepers like to try to apply this method to their home flock, but further research reveals that wing feather sexing is only reliable in controlled environments where sex-linked chickens are bred to retain this trait (e.g. as part of a commercial poultry operation) though it can occasionally apply to backyard chickens successfully as well.

A two way image collage showing the slight difference in day old sex-linked chicks, a female is on the left and a male is on the right, the male being slightly more covered in fluff. — Wing differences in day-old sex-linked chicks (source)

5) Behavioral Differences

Rooster behavior

Appearances aside, there are a number of behavioral traits that can give you a clue if chick is a rooster or hen. In addition to standing taller, male chicks may fight amongst each other more, trying to show off for the ladies or compete for the best roost.

Male chicks may also start to practice “tidbitting”: where roosters scratch, dance, and give short, high-pitched clucks near food – a signal that he found some tasty treats and wants to share with his girls. Yes, roosters are quite the gentlemen! And despite their mean reputation, cockerels can also be the sweetest birds in the flock. In fact, male chicks are often the most friendly and readily-handled of the group.

And of course, the final and perhaps most obvious sign that a chick is male: he will start to crow. Though a rooster won’t belt out a respectable crow until he’s 4 or 5 months old, young male chicks usually start exercising their vocal cords and start trying to crow as early as 6 to 8 weeks old.

A white and black rooster with iridescent green flashes showing on black tail feathers. His head is lifted upwards as he lets out a crow with his beak open. He has very large, bright red comb and wattles. Sexing chicks has past by the time one starts crowing. — Cock-a-doodle do!

Pullet behavior

One tell-tale behavior of older female chicks is the “submissive squat”. As pullets near maturity and are close to egg-laying age (16 weeks or older), they will often start to squat low and spread their wings as you approach. You can bend down and give them a nice little pet on the back, but it’s not pets they’re after… Female chickens squat as a sign they’re ready to mate with a rooster, and lay eggs! Check out this post about when do chickens start laying eggs: 5 signs to watch for.

Interestingly, pullets or hens may also exhibit “masculine” tendencies in the absence of a rooster, including tidbitting, issuing predator warning calls, or even crowing (though this usually happens far later than it would for males). Our eldest hen Hennifer regularly crows, and our Crested Cream Legbar hen Phoebe even grew spurs!

A dark golden orange chicken that is squatting down with her tail feather pointing upwards, the hen is so low to the ground she is almost touching the ground with her chest. DeannaCat's hand is poised over her, petting her along her back. By the time your chicken squats, you should no trouble sexing chicks correctly. — Miss Peach (RIP), giving me her best squat.

What to do with young roosters?

If you end up with a cockerel, please consider keeping him if you can! Roosters are excellent flock protectors, keeping watch and alerting the others when predators are around. Roosters are often very friendly with their favorite humans too! Otherwise, you can re-home your rooster to a nice farm where he can live out his life, or at least provide food for a family. Check your area for local animal or farm sanctuaries, or even “rooster rescues”. Listing the rooster on Craigslist or Facebook marketplace is another option.

A chart which contains the differences between roosters and hens when it comes to size, combs and wattles, feathers, and behavior with a brief description of each for each sex.

And that’s the 411 on sexing chicks.

All in all, I hope this guide gave you plenty of tips to help identify male and female chicks. I also hope you have a blast raising them! I miss having them around so much. Please let us know if you have any questions in the comments below, and consider pinning or sharing this post if you found it useful.

If you’re new to keeping chickens, be sure to check out these important related articles:

4 Comments

Kendra

July 26, 2023 at 1:12 pm Reply

My first hatch ever from a blue laced lemon head bantam cochin’s eggs fertilized by a partridge silkie rooster resulted in five cute little chicks. Two of them were slow feathering lavendar based chicks and the other three were fast feathering orange, black, and white chicks. I insisted that the lavendar chicks must be males and the prettier more colorful chicks must be males. I DNA tested the three females to find out they are males. The two slow feathering females took after their silkie daddy’s slow feather pattern. The lavendar turned into blue lace as the girls aged. Now they look like clones of their mom with smaller combs/waddles, dark eyes, five toes, and dark skin. The boys carried their mom’s fast feathering gene without the beautiful lacing pattern. Oddly many of the females with the cochin and silkie cross end up with the laced pattern. The boys show zero lacing.
- DeannaCat
  
  July 26, 2023 at 2:33 pm Reply
  
  Hi Kendra, interesting, thanks for sharing your story and experience.
Olga Sheaffer

April 2, 2023 at 8:46 am Reply

Very interesting article. Now I know what to look for next time I buy my chickens.
MaryEtta Palmer

March 31, 2023 at 9:47 am Reply

One can assume sex differences in baby chicks I a couple other ways. Gently hold a baby chick upside down:.after a few seconds, the female will calmly hang while the male will try to right itself by lifting its head. Also, there is a difference in the feathers under the wing, near the shoulder but the chick needs to be very young.

Male or Female Chicks? 5 Ways to Tell the Difference

Sexing Chicks