The art of vent or cloacal sexing of day-old chickens is difficult to master without instructions from an experienced sexer. Use the following to develop the procedure. Before examining the vent, discharge the chicken's excretions by lightly pressing on both sides of the abdomen in a downward motion [Oh bugger, mustn't have been gentle enough - pass me that box of kleenex will ya?].
...With the index finger start from the top of the vent moving down, back and around, rolling the vent in a sideways action.
At the same time a similar action with the free thumb, starting from the top and rolling down and back
With the thumb and forefinger placed either side of the vent (cloaca) apply gentle pressure [whoops, pass me a new chick, there's a good fella] and a rolling action to evert the vent and expose the male eminence [that's a new term for me] or lack of it [hmmm what will my feminist readers think about that 'lack' as a definer of gender, I wonder, not that I necessarily think chicks have 'gender' but that's another story].
After a little practice [if I was a chick I think I'd be hoping I'd be getting picked a bit further down the line], this can be accomplished without injury of significant discomfort to the chicken.
The article ends, thus:
Having access to chickens of known sex is a great help in developing the art of vent sexing and feather sexed meat chickens [if you can sex them via their feathers why do you squeeze their little bits?].
The longer you live in the country, the more you realise how little you know.....
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