Description of the process of chick sexing

Memories of railroad workers who stayed at family's prewar hotel in Spokane, Washington Working as a night clerk at family's Spokane, Washington, hotel, throwing out the drunk residents Family's hotel clientele, transients traveling by rail Japanese American railroad workers are fired following the bombing of Pearl Harbor Losing job with railroad because of being Japanese American A racist encounter at a movie theater following the bombing of Pearl Harbor Encountering a train full of Japanese Americans being transported to a concentration camp Description of the process of chick sexing The rigorous work schedule of a chick-sexer in upstate New York The importance of speed and accuracy in the chick-sexing industry The enormous demand for chick sexers in the chicken hatchery industry

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It was a matter of squeezing the chick to get the egg yolk out, the egg yolk that they lived on after they hatched. It would be eighteen days in the incubator, and three days in the hatching compartment. And in order for the chick to look nice and yellow and bright, they have to use formaldehyde mixed in some other charcoal. And when you walked in when the formaldehyde was not only for keeping it germ-free, but it also turned the white chicken yellowish color. There's something about a pure white chicken that didn't look just right, however, a little baby chicken, one day old, that had a yellow color, fluffed out, looked a lot better to the buying public, apparently. And oh, I'm not sure how long it took for us to be adept at it, but we, with our thumb and forefinger on the left hand, we opened the vent, identified on the rim whether it was male or female, and sexed, that's what sexing was about.

Date: March 15 & 16, 2006
Location: Washington, US
Interviewer: Megan Asaka
Contributed by: Denshō: The Japanese American Legacy Project.

chick sexing