Egg gender selection survey

rottlady said:

4 Cream Legbar eggs. 2 measured round 2 measured longer than round

1 egg was a quitter
1 egg still in incubator giving it a couple more days candles ok but I see no movement
1 chick from round egg
1 chick from long egg

BOTH boys

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CherriesBrood said:

Ok I just had a thought. I'm thinking that if you take eggs from a younger hen that's like below 10 months of age and you take the eggs that are rounded they will likely be females.
Think about it, she's young so she lays smaller eggs and in my experiences she usually lays rounded eggs, plus she's a new layer so her eggs aren't what they will be like when she is older, as she ages that shape and size of the eggs she lays changes. I have once (and this was in my first hatch) tried this. I took the most roundest eggs and 3 hatched, 2 turned out to be females and 1 turned out to be a male. That's pretty good considering in one of my other hatches all turned out to be males and they were from pointy eggs. I think younger hens will lay "female" eggs, and older hens will lay "male" eggs. What do you all think about this theory?

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ChickNanny13 said:

Try "testing" this theory, maybe more will try along with you. Will be interesting if Germany does perfect their experiment! Would be nice not to hatch Roos unless needed.

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dekel18042 said:

ChickNanny13 said:

 


Try "testing" this theory, maybe more will try along with you.  Will be interesting if Germany does perfect their experiment!  Would be nice not to hatch Roos unless needed.

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    I tested this theory twice, sort of accidently.  I had just gotten an incubator and wanted to order eggs which would be shipped.  Everyone (including the person I wanted to buy the eggs from) told me to practice with my own (free) eggs first until I learned what I was doing rather than practice incubating on expensive shipped eggs. I only wanted four or so of my own hatched birds but after hearing I could expect a very low hatch I incubated 10 of my own eggs.  The mothers were less than 7 months old (six months and change) and I put 10 eggs in the incubator, not wanting to hatch a singleton.  All ten hatched and I got 3 girls and 7 boys,
   Then last summer I lost a young cockerel in an accident.  I tried to find another but couldn't and decided I would have to wait until this spring.  After he had been gone well over a week I decided to try to hatch some eggs hoping to get a son of his.  Both he and the little pullets were only 4.5 months old and had just started laying so I really had little expectations.  I collected 15 eggs.  10 didn't develop at all, not sure if all were fertile.  But I got five babies, three cockerels and two pullets.

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CherriesBrood said:

Maybe we all should test this theory more just like @ChickNanny13 said. I'm going to test it sometime this summer or fall. Sadly I don't have time to do it sooner. I will let everyone know percentage of girls to boys once I do, but in the meantime would anyone else like to try?

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dekel18042 said:

CherriesBrood said:

Maybe we all should test this theory more just like [@=/u/221730/ChickNanny13]@ChickNanny13[/@] said. I'm going to test it sometime this summer or fall. Sadly I don't have time to do it sooner. I will let everyone know percentage of girls to boys once I do, but in the meantime would anyone else like to try?

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     I have eggs in the incubator now, hatch date 5/7.  11 of them are from my late last spring's hens so mothers only over the pullet stage, 10 months old when I set the eggs.  These 11 eggs should produce sex links so I will know the sex right away when they hatch.  The rest of the eggs are from my two year old hens.

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