e grand jmplon female at the 1987 Maryland Angus Breeders Show
held In West Friendship was Prospect Lady 22U. Also named the Junior
champ, she is owned by Mark Moxley, West Friendship, Maryland, and Indian
Creek Farm, Stahlstown, Pennsylvania. Judge of the show was Mark Duffell,
Forest, Virginia.
Photo by American Angus Association.
p,. stood as the grand champion bu. n
tlngdon Farm, Alexandria, Pennsylvania, at the 1987 Maryland Angus Breed
ers Show, West Friendship. Judge of the show was Mark Duffell, Forest,
Virginia.
Photo by American Angus Association.
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Increasing Feather Sexing Accuracy
The sex of many commercial
broiler strain chicks can be deter
mined by the feather sexing tech
nique. This technique involves
comparing the relative length of
the primary and covert feathers on
the wing of a newly hatched chick.
The two types of feathering possi
ble are rapid and slow. The rapid
feathering chick should have prim
ary feathers much longer than the
coverts. The coverts will be equal
length to the primary feathers on
the wings of slow feathering
chicks.
The growth of the wing prima
ries and coverts is normally con
trolled by one pair of genes. These
genes are located on the chromo
somes that control the sex of the
chick and are thus called sex linked
genes. A mating of rapid feather
ing male parents with slow feather
ing females will produce chicks
which can be feather sexed at
hatching. The day old male chicks
will be slow feathering and the
female offspring will all be fast or
rapid feathering.
While in theory feather sexing
should be a simple and accurate
process, application of the proce
dure has resulted in serious sexing
errors in some instances. A trial
was conducted at the Penn State
poultry research farm to investi
gate reasons for difficulty in accu
rately sexing chicks by the feather
method. One hundred and sixty
eight chicks produced from a cross
of rapid feathering Hubbard roos
ters and slow feathering Hubbard
hens were individually wing
banded at hatching. The wing
feathers were closely examined
and the chicks classified into one
Hatching % 7 weeks %
80 47.6 78
46 27.4 44 27.0
34 20.2 33 20.2
8 4.8 8 4.9
£ i
# *. -.
of 4 categories.
The 4 categories were as
follows:
1. Primaries longer than coverts
2. Primaries equal to coverts
3. Coverts longer than primaries
4. Coverts present- no primaries
The chicks were then placed in a
floor pen and reared to seven
weeks of age. At seven weeks, the
broilers were processed and the
sex of each bin! was determined.
During the seven week period, 5
chisk died; the distribution was: 2
chicks from category 1, 2 chicks
from category 2, and one chick
from category 3. The sex of the 5
chicks that died was not deter
mined. The data collected at 7
weeks revealed that all chicks in
category 1 were females and all
chicks in categories 2,3, and 4
were males.
Category 3 chicks had two diffe
rent lengths of wing feathers at
hatching, but the coverts were
always longer than the primaries
instead of the reverse situation. To
the individual not trained to deter
mine the sex of the chick by the
relative length of the coverts to the
primaries or to the individual
trained to classify chicks with
unequal primary and covert
lengths as females, the chicks in
category 3 would have been incor
rectly sexed. The results of this
trial indicate that individuals that
feather sex chicks should be
trained to observe the relative
length of coverts to primary wing
feathers or a high degree of error
could be encountered.
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