All good in the incubator! Turning rota going well and temperature seems to be staying really stable! Had a discussion again with the children about the fact that none of the eggs might hatch and that if they do and they are cockerels, then they will have to go back to 'the farm'!
(Actually do know a man , who goes by the name of 'Chicken Doug', who will take any unwanted birds to his smallholding. He is like the chickens answer to the Dogs Trust in that he never puts a healthy bird down!)
Having said that - I really don't want the children to get too attached to their chick and then find it has to go. So, today's research has been into how you can sex a chick and how early.
There seem to be a number of methods out there as well as people who are trained chick sexers!
One involved squeezing the poo out of the chicks with your hand and trying to spot their 'parts' after the contents of their bowel has been ejected! The risks with that are that a) you squirt yourself with poo or b) you kill the chick by squeezing it too hard!
Plus, the essential bits are only as big as a pin head so the chances of spotting them once you have got over the trauma of flying feces are small.
Another involves holding the chick up in the air just above its wings. If it pulls its legs up it is a cockerel. If it lets them hang loose it is a hen - Can this really be true?
I have found another method that you can do at a day old which involves looking at wing feathers. The theory is that if the chick has long feathers at the end of the wing - it's a girl. Short, it's a boy!
Again I find myself being sceptical about this but it seems very popular amongst back yard chicken keepers on the net!
If you know of another way - please let me know.
Off to eat chocolate...
Al
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