A straight run of chickens refers to chicks that have not been sexed, they are a mixture of males and females, pullets and cockerels. In a large quantity of birds, there will be an equal number of hens and roosters.
You may choose to select straight run chicks to create a sustainable homestead- producing eggs, meat, and fertilized eggs for hatching; or you may prefer only pullets to fortify egg production and to meet city limit standards.
Brush up on some chicken terminology1
Chick- a baby chicken is considered a chick until it sheds it down at approximately 12 weeks
Cockerel- a rooster under one year old
Rooster- also called a ‘cock’, a male chicken over one year of age
Pullet- young hens under one year of age
Hen- a female chicken older than one year
Biddy- a chick or a chicken
Flock- a group of chickens
Clutch- eggs a broody hen lays with intention to hatch
What are straight run chickens?
Straight run means the baby chicks are not separated by gender- a mix of male and female chicks. You will have a variety of pullets and cockerels in your batch, a medley of hens and roosters.
You get what you get and you don’t get upset.
In large quantities, you can expect the hatching ratio of straight run orders to be an equal number of pullets and cockerels (48:52), however in small orders the ratio may be skewed. The larger the number of chicks, the more likely you are to get an even selection of hens and roosters.
You may hear straight run chickens referred to as:
- unsexed
- sold as hatched
- mixed
How can you tell if a chick is a male or female?
Feather sexed, auto-sex, and sex link chickens are relatively easy to distinguish the male from female chicks by observing the difference in colour and feathers.
Other breeds can be much more difficult to determine the gender at a young age and require a more invasive sexing process called vent sexing.
What is feather sexing?
Feather sexing (wing sexing) is done by looking at the wings of certain breeds of straight-run chicks and observing the difference between the emerging primary feathers and the covert feathers. In female chickens, the primary feathers are longer than the covert feathers. Male primary feathers are the same length or shorter than covert feathers. This article shows how to clearly feather sex chicks.
What is auto-sexing?
Auto sex chickens are pure bred and produce a chick with a slight variation of colour between male and female day-old chicks.
Some auto-sex chicken breeds2:
- Rhode Island Red
- Cream Legbar
- New Hampshire
- Barred Rock
- Bielfieder
What does sex-link mean?
Sex-link chickens occur when two pure bred chickens are crossed, resulting in male and female chicks with differing colours. Red sex-link or Black sex-link are common variations.
White Plymouth Rock (hen) + New Hampshire Red (rooster) = Golden Comet chick (Red Sex-link)3
Barred Rock (hen) + Rhode Island Red (rooster)= Black Star (Black-sex link)
What is vent sexing?
A chicken’s genitalia are contained inside the body, therefore a process called vent sexing is required to determine the gender if indistinguishable through feather colour upon hatching.
To ensure the chick is not harmed, a specialist will examine the internal organs through the vent- the chick’s bottom. Vent sexing is about 80% accurate as there are multiple variations in the appearance of each sex organ.
Probe sexing done through the vent with a specialized tool is about 90% accuracy.4
Where to get straight run chicks?
- large scale hatcheries
- local breeders
- purchase hatching eggs
- let a hen hatch her own eggs
The challenges and benefits of straight run chickens
Hatcheries dispose of unwanted males
Some hatcheries must dispose of the unclaimed male chicks5. If you choose straight run chicks you are participating in a more balanced production loop.
What do I do with extra roosters?
Butcher extra roosters for your own meat.
- Excess roosters can be harvested as meat birds. When processed around 6 months (definitely before 1 year old), young birds will be small, but the meat is tender. We place two roosters in the slow cooker and it falls off the bone.
Find them a new home.
- Heritage roosters and rare breeds will sell for top dollar.
Some city by-laws do not allow roosters
If raising roosters is not acceptable within your city limits, you will need to process the extra boys before they begin to crow at age 4-5 months.
Cockerels grow into roosters, and roosters can sometimes be aggressive. It is a myth that ALL roosters are mean, but if you want to avoid surprise roosters, don’t select unsexed chicks. It is almost guaranteed there will be a few in the mix.
You can pick the best rooster
If you are wanting to keep a few roosters to watch over your hens, hear their quintessential crowing, and have fertilized eggs to hatch your own clutch of chicks, choosing straight run chicks will allow you to pick the best rooster of the bunch.
If you are concerned about aggressive behaviour, you can easily pick out the most docile rooster of the group. We have been able to have friendly roosters with our backyard chickens this way.
Cockerels begin to show their dominance and come into maturity as early as 6- 8 weeks.
Try the “hat trick”:
Drop a hat (or something unfamiliar) into the brooder box and see which chicks get startled and flee, and which chicks scurry to investigate. Those fearless chicks are presumed to be roosters.
You will have fertilized eggs to hatch
If you are looking for a more sustainable system, the addition of roosters will ensure your hens have fertilized eggs to sit on when they go broody.
You don’t need roosters to get eggs!
Many chicken keepers are desiring egg-laying hens over meat production. Roosters are not needed for a hen to lay an egg, you do not need to add one to your chicken coop! If you are only seeking additional egg production, the straight run option is not for you.
Straight run chicks are the cheapest option
(Aside from selecting only roosters!)
| Pullet | Unsexed | |
| Cornish Cross | $5.05 | $4.25 |
| Brown hybrid | $5.78 | $4.61 |
| Barred Rock | $5.71 | $4.25 |
| Ameracauna | $5.71 | $4.54 |
FAQ
Why doesn’t my hatchery sell sexed heritage birds?
It is difficult to feather sex many heritage chicken breeds until 4-12 weeks of age. Unless your hatchery enlists vent sexing, they will be unable to determine the gender, thus sell heritage breeds as straight run chickens.6
Can I return unwanted roosters to the hatchery?
Unfortunately, if you specifically purchased unsexed chickens, the hatchery will not offer free rooster returns. If you requested only pullets, the hatchery may reimburse any misplaced chicks (to be determined by each individual hatchery).
Can I determine the sex of my own chicks?
You will be able to wing sex chicks relatively accurately with practice and tutoring, although vent sexing is not recommended without proper training.
Is it possible to sex a chick before it is born?
It is not possible to sex a chick through egg candling, however new methods are being tested to determine the gender of a chick before it has hatched. Shape Indexing (SI) has shown great potential as the sex determination can be accomplished before incubation. This means that male eggs can be used for consumption, rather than being terminated. Testing has shown shape indexing to be 70%-80% accurate. Read more here.
How many roosters will I get?
If the breed of chicken you are selecting is able to be feather sexed as day-old chicks, you will receive a 50-50 mix: the same number of males and females. If they are unable to be sexed, the selection will be completely random.
What to feed your new chicks?
Utilize this chicken feed calculator for chicks, hens, and meat birds to determine exactly how much to feed your flock everyday.
Learn how to feed meat scraps to your chickens to boost egg production.
Keeping a healthy flock
Be prepared to prevent and treat chicken illnesses.
Save to Pinterest
- Chicken terminology> almanac.com/glossary-terms-backyard-chicken-keeper-needs-know
↩︎ - Auto-sexing Poultry>cacklehatchery.com/22-autosex-breeds-of-chickens-and-geese/ ↩︎
- Sex-link chicken combination>Poultrykeeper.com/poultry-breeding-autosexing ↩︎
- Pipandgrow.com>Sexing Heritage Breed Chicks Upon Hatch: Facts and Myths ↩︎
- Why buy straight run> Silver Fox Farm ↩︎
- Why we are unable to sex our Heritage chicks> heritagechickens.ualberta.ca ↩︎
I am terrible at feather sexting! ha. But I didn’t realize there is usually a 50-50 mix with straight runs – wow!!
Hopefully practice makes perfect?Ha!
I’m curious to see what my split will be with my chicks from the incubator this year. I’ve only ever ordered from the hatchery. Will be interesting to see how the numbers play out, especially with smaller quantity!
We only got 1 rooster from our straight run chicks last year… He was a beautiful rooster and great… till he started being aggressive toward my 5 year old when he’d go get eggs. I’d love a rooster that is chill!
Oh dear! yikes! he’s gotta go! I still have a scar on my foot from our first nasty rooster… In his defence he was really good at his job. We now have three lovely roosters. They are out there! Good luck
We always have at least 90% roosters lol!! We call “the rooster man” & he removes to “no-kill” for us!
HA! Of course all roosters! That’s wonderful you were able to find a new place for them easily though!
such great information for the new chicken owner!!!
It can feel like a new language sometimes! Happy chicken tending!
This is also new to me and so fascinating. Thank you for sharing as we begin our chicken journey!
We have yet to purchase chicks, preferring to buy pullets until we can get a brooding station set up. I really appreciate your insight into the benefits, or at least the purpose for, straight run chicks. We’ve processed meat birds before and I never thought about using excess roosters for this as well, even if the breed itself isn’t necessarily advertised for that purpose. Great article! Thanks!
Yes, it wasn’t much extra effort to process a few more roosters on butcher day, and I am so grateful to have a full freezer! It’s nice to have ready-to-lay pullets because you don’t have to wait for your eggs 🙂 It’s hard to be patient waiting for those golden nuggets