Hatching female chicks method

[CherriesBrood]

That is very interesting! Need to do it a few more times with the same number of eggs. Hmm, I wonder if this might mean the likelihood that my EE hen will produce females is higher. I can test it next year.

You know it might be. I have a black copper maran hen and she lays only female eggs every egg her previous owner hatched was a female.
I think it also has to do with the hen, some will be more prone to producing males and others females, but then some will do half and half.

 

[ChickNanny13]

From what I've read on the Sexing Eggs thread, eggs compared should be from the same hen & not a 'mixed' group of eggs. CherriesBrood, I read your eggs were from one hen, am I correct? Wow you got great results

I also read somewhere in BYC, which I was shocked to learn, HENS determine the sex of the chick, not the male

Waiting to hear more results with your experiments.

 

[CherriesBrood]

Oh I didn't know that, all this time I have been doing it from a mixed group... Whoops. That is shocking! I always thought it came from the males sperm. Well my first time I hatched eggs I used all round eggs from the same hen 3 hatched 2 females 1 male. I'm curious to know what other people's results are too. I wonder if anyone has tried putting them in the fridge like I said. It's a new method so I doubt very many have done it.

 

[ChickNanny13]

That's interesting, I've also read something about temperature....Maybe your chill down is a plus?

 

[CherriesBrood]

That's interesting, I've also read something about temperature....Maybe your chill down is a plus?

Well with that batch I didn't do a chill down. That was before I learned about the cooler temperatures. Someone just told me about this and I have yet to try it out.

 

[CherriesBrood]

Has anyone gotten a chance to try this method?

 

[BaileyMChicks]

I don't think that just putting the eggs in the fridge will kill off all the male embryos...I have hatched out 9 chicks that were in the refrigerator, and I got 4 girls and 5 boys. Most of the eggs were round, and the one egg that wasn't round, the chick turned out to be a female. And so far, out of 12 eggs that were in the refrigerator that were incubated, I got 10 fertile eggs and 9 chicks. And most of these eggs were in the fridge for a week, some I didn't even know how long. And our fridge is pretty cold. Also, upping or lowering the temp in the bator to get the desired gender isn't true. Something I have found seems true though. And I would like to test it out next year more as well. My theory is that if you hatch eggs laid in the colder months(January-early may[I don't know about october-december because I have never hatched, or had my broodys hatch, chicks that late in the year.]), you will get more pullets, and if you hatch eggs laid in the warmer months(june-september), you will get more cockerels. So far this is the data I have collected to go with this theory. I need more to accurately prove it though. Ok, my info so far:

Late April-early may hatch in 2015-My hen hatched out 5 eggs that were laid in late april, and they hatched in may. It was like 30-45 degrees at night and 50-60 degrees during the day when they were laid. Out of the five she hatched out , all of them were pullets.

Late June-early July hatch in 2015-I had a hen hatch out 2 eggs. She originally had 6 eggs, but that's a long story and I'm not gunna tell it right now. Out of the 2 eggs, there was 1 boy and 1 girl. But since there was only 2 eggs, I don't really use this as good evidence. Because if I put it into percents, that's 50% roosters, but in reality there was only one, so that would screw up any percent that I tried to calculate.

August hatch in 2015- Another one of my hens hatched out 3 eggs. Of the 3 eggs, one had been refrigerated for 3 days, another for 5 days, and the last for 7+ days. I ended up with 2 girls and 1 boy. I don't know if this matters or not but the boy was from the egg in the fridge for 3 days.


July hatch in 2016-I hatched out 6 eggs in my brinsea mini eco bator, and all of these had been refrigerated, for how long, I don't have a clue. I had originally put in 8 eggs, but then I took one out on day 2 and added a new egg. Then I had a clear egg later on and took it out. Then i had an embryo quit, so I was left with 6 eggs with embryos. All hatched fine. The temps in the incubator were normal. No heat spikes, but at day 3 and day 1(day 1 for little Milo who had been put in on day 2 for the rest of the eggs) the incubator had shut off because of the outlet, and the temp got down to 74(I was gone all day with friends and no one checked the incubator), but I got it up as soon as I could, and everyone was fine. Phantom quit on day 10-11. Now all the little guys are doing fine. Out of the 6 chicks, 4 are cockerels, and 2 are pullets. Milo turned out to be a boy by the way. Just in case anyone was curious.

So, from what little data I have, I have theorized that eggs collected in warm months= cockerel>pullet and eggs collected in cool months= cockerels<pullets.

What do you think?

 

[Mosey2003]

I've read the opposite elsewhere: that cold weather eggs are more likely to be cockerels and warm weather eggs pullets, so as to give the pullets a better shot of surviving.

 

[BaileyMChicks]

I've read the opposite elsewhere: that cold weather eggs are more likely to be cockerels and warm weather eggs pullets, so as to give the pullets a better shot of surviving.

Well that's interesting...From my info it seems the other way??

 

[Mosey2003]

I'd like to know for sure which it is.