Color Sexing of Day-Old Brown Leghorns

VENT sexing of chicks, while extensively practised, requires skilled technicians. Color sexing, when applicable, requires less skill and in consequence lowers chick cost to the farmer. In addition, many prefer color sexing to vent sexing in the belief that by the former method there is less spread of disease. The general method of sexing day-old Brown Leghorns by the dorsal stripe was tried out from 1931–1933 in studies at the Ontario Agricultural College by MacArthur and Jerome (unpublished). Sexing by these criteria was about 80 percent accurate. Figure 1 was made for use at that time. Later, as interest in the subject was revived, sexing tests were made from year to year when the Brown Leghorns were bred to maintain the stock at the Ontario Agricultural College. As post mortem sexing revealed the sources of previous errors and new criteria were added, the method became almost uniformly successful. Table . . .