Nantou County resident Lu Yao-ping (呂瑤萍), 49, has worked as a chick sexer since high school.
The profession of examining chicks to determine their gender was passed on to her by her father, who she worked under as an apprentice starting in her senior year of high school, Lu said.
A lot of experience is needed to develop the skill, Lu said, adding that she made many mistakes in her first year on the job.
Photo: Chang Hsuan-che, Taipei Times
Lu did not graduate from her apprenticeship until she was 20 years old, she said.
Sexing requires experience, because the identification is made solely by spreading the chick’s genitals and scrutinizing them for tiny sex organs, all of which is done by hand and with the naked eye, she said.
Chicks are frail, so using too much force could prove fatal, while prolonged exposure to lamp light is also unhealthy, she said.
The profession attracts few young people, because sexers must work surrounded by farm smells, which might cause allergies, Lu said, adding that a high tolerance for filth is necessary for the job, as the chicks often have feces on them.
“Chick sexing is a not a popular profession; almost everybody was born into it. I only know about a dozen sexers in central Taiwan,” she said.
Due to the high-skill and high-demand nature of the work, chick sexers are called in by farms all over the nation and an experienced sexer’s annual pay is about NT$1 million (US$33,028), Lu said.
Chick sexing is paid at a rate of about NT$0.5 per chick for most domestic chickens and NT$0.8 per chick for guinea fowls, as they are harder to examine, she said.
When asked about any strange or memorable incidents, Lu said she once worked at a farm that used too many hormones on the hens, which resulted in chicks that appeared to be female, but were actually found to be male after dissection.
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake struck off the coast of Hualien County in eastern Taiwan at 7pm yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The epicenter of the temblor was at sea, about 69.9km south of Hualien County Hall, at a depth of 30.9km, it said. There were no immediate reports of damage resulting from the quake. The earthquake’s intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a temblor, was highest in Taitung County’s Changbin Township (長濱), where it measured 5 on Taiwan’s seven-tier intensity scale. The quake also measured an intensity of 4 in Hualien, Nantou, Chiayi, Yunlin, Changhua and Miaoli counties, as well as
Taiwan is to have nine extended holidays next year, led by a nine-day Lunar New Year break, the Cabinet announced yesterday. The nine-day Lunar New Year holiday next year matches the length of this year’s holiday, which featured six extended holidays. The increase in extended holidays is due to the Act on the Implementation of Commemorative and Festival Holidays (紀念日及節日實施條例), which was passed early last month with support from the opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party. Under the new act, the day before Lunar New Year’s Eve is also a national holiday, and Labor Day would no longer be limited
COMMITMENTS: The company had a relatively low renewable ratio at 56 percent and did not have any goal to achieve 100 percent renewable energy, the report said Pegatron Corp ranked the lowest among five major final assembly suppliers in progressing toward Apple Inc’s commitment to be 100 percent carbon neutral by 2030, a Greenpeace East Asia report said yesterday. While Apple has set the goal of using 100 percent renewable energy across its entire business, supply chain and product lifecycle by 2030, carbon emissions from electronics manufacturing are rising globally due to increased energy consumption, it said. Given that carbon emissions from its supply chain accounted for more than half of its total emissions last year, Greenpeace East Asia evaluated the green transition performance of Apple’s five largest final
Taiwan is to extend its visa-waiver program for Philippine passport holders for another year, starting on Aug. 1, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said on Friday. Lin made the announcement during a reception in Taipei marking the 127th anniversary of Philippine independence and the 50th anniversary of the establishment of the Manila Economic and Cultural Office (MECO) in Taiwan, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. The decision reflected Taiwan’s commitment to deepening exchanges with the Philippines, the statement cited Lin as saying, adding that it was a key partner under the New Southbound Policy launched in 2016. Lin also expressed hope
RSS