How It Works

Step by step

  1. Create a free account. Takes about a minute at Create Account. Your email is your username.
  2. Register your birds. On Register Samples, add one line per bird. Type a Bird ID of your choosing for each one, such as a leg band number, a name, or a pen and color. Tick the tests you want for each bird: DNA sexing, lavender gene, recessive white gene, frizzle gene, blue egg gene, or any mix. You can add as many birds as you like in a single order, and the form shows the running total.
  3. Pay online. Enter your card at the bottom of the same form. Sexing is $8 per test, or $7 per test when the order has 29 or more sexing tests. Gene tests are $12 to $14 per bird; see Pricing. You receive a batch number on screen and by email.
  4. Collect the samples. Follow the Collection & Mailing Instructions: a few drops of blood on a small piece of coffee filter, dried completely, one bird per zip bag, with the Bird ID written on the bag and the paper.
  5. Mail everything in one envelope. Write your batch number on the outside and mail it to Hobby Hen Farms, 1550 Valley Home Rd., Morristown, TN 37813.
  6. Track progress. My Batches shows each batch and its status: paid and awaiting samples, samples received, testing in progress, results released.
  7. Read your results. Results are usually released within 24 hours of your samples arriving. When your batch is released you get an email, and My Batches shows each result beside its Bird ID.

What the test tells you

The sex test reads the sex chromosomes in the blood sample and reports each bird as male or female. It works on chickens of any breed and any age, including day-old chicks.

Gene tests use the same blood spot. Lavender reports carrier or non-carrier. Recessive white, frizzle and blue egg report how many copies of the gene a bird has (none, one or two). Details and prices are on the Pricing page.

What you need

  • Coffee filter paper cut into small squares
  • Small zip-top bags, one per bird
  • A permanent marker
  • Toenail clippers and styptic powder or corn starch
  • A regular mailing envelope and a stamp
Register Samples
Read the instructions