??? about incubation temperature and chick gender. Anyone?

I've got blue bantam cochins, 3 pullets and 1 cockerel. So far I've hatched out 6 babies from them - 5 cockerels and a pullet. There have been three splash and three blue chicks. All chicks were hatched under a broody hen, outside in the uninsulated hen house, with wood shavings for bedding in the nest boxes.

I know how blue x blue breeding works, with splash, blue and black babies. I'm a little surprised (though somewhat pleased) that I haven't had any blacks yet.

Mostly though, I'm disappointed in the ratio of males to females. I've read about incubation temperatures affecting gender of the chicks, and I'm wondering if that has affected the ratio here. Is there somewhere with good, accurate information on this subject? Is it really true that temperature affects chick gender?

First hatch was May 31, with a nice, rainy May. It produced 3 males and a female. Temperatures weren't hot, and it was fairly humid (for southern NM). 5 out of 7 eggs hatched, with one chick dying soon after hatching. I'm not counting that chick in the numbers in this thread.

Second hatch was July 31, and July was hot some days and rainy some days. One male baby from that hatch. I set two bantam cochin eggs, one had been refrigerated, and the non-refrigerated egg hatched. No development in the other

Third hatch was August 20, again with some hot days and some rainy days. One likely male from that hatch, judging by how slowly his wing feathers are coming in. My mamas feathered in much more quickly than the baby daddy, so I'm assuming this slowly feathering baby is a male. I set 10 mixed eggs, only one of which was a bantam cochin egg. All eggs hatched, and I'm unsure at this point of genders.

i don't think so.

i don't know what's learned in USA but in my country, when i was in junior high school (perhaps 10 year ago). i learned that gender (whatever the creature) is affected by DNA and chromosome "passed" through parent to child (in this case chicks). so the actual thing that affected the gender is the X and the Y inside the chromosome. if i'm not forget (i think i forget), the x chromosome affect the male and y for female, if the x is greater then the chicks will be male (in this case rooster), then if y greater the chicks will be female (hen).

that's all i remember (i'm sorry if there is any wrong) from my school age (its been long time, hope not so many wrong)

I know what you are talking about, but I am not sure what the answer is. I know with reptiles, temperature dictates gender. Would be interesting to hear the final answer on this.

~Cherlyn

When I was reading up on chicken genetics (from some link posted in this forum) it said that birds were opposite of mammals. The gender is determined by the hen (supposively).

Something to read.

http://www.nature.com/embor/journal/v2/n3/full/embor459.html

Hens are not reptiles.

No, it doesn't work. Or hatcheries wouldn't produce billions of spare roosters (significant loss to them) a year.

Nope--incubation temp doesn't affect gender in birds. Gender is determined before the egg is laid. There is some evidence that males can survive larger temperature extremes, and therefore a very high or very low temp may cause more females to die in the egg, therefore giving the impression that the temperature has "caused" the eggs to be males.

Mulia--the X and Y chromosome thing & DNA is taught in American schools too. It's very interesting to learn that the same things are taught in Indonesia!

Edited to add: Sometimes you just get unlucky, especially in small batches--with color and also with gender.

nice to hear that.


by the way, you live in Charlotte, i feel familiar with charlotte word, could you please explain if there is special meaning in charlotte word?

em, sorry but could i just have a "name" or "nickname" or 1 word you could use for me call? or should i call you with "cat" or "imcuriousitycat"? because i think that's improper and impolite to call people by using animal name.

wew, i will be considered hijacking people's thread. sorry jossanne

http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=1629050
Same publication in PDF:
http://galliform.psy.mq.edu.au/Megapode_project/Reprints/goeth&booth.pdf

Temp of incubation does not affect sex of chickens, the only bird species is does affect are megapodes http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megapode

Hi Mulia--We have a saying here: "Call me anything as long as you don't call me late for dinner." That's pretty much how I feel. "Cat" is fine, or "Curiosity Cat," or iamcuriositycat, or even just Heather (that's my given name). I used to run a blog called "Curiosity Cat," and I took the name because one thing about me is that I am curious about absolutely everything--like a cat.

The name "Charlotte" came from a Queen named Charlotte from when our city was founded. I don't know if the name has any meaning beyond that. There is a very famous book called "Charlotte's Web" about a spider and a pig--it's a very cute and well-known book here, but our city was not named for the book.

Charlotte is in North Carolina, which is on the eastern side of the United States.

alright then i'll just call you heather as more "humanness" call.

ew, by the way, actually, cat in my country isn't curious at all except they heard "cit cit" sound of rat. i even sometimes "grab" some cats from street to my warehouse for "rat cleaning". effective, free, easy to maintained and natural. but many were died because of being "hit" (whatever the right word) by car now.

wew, gotta search a free copy of that book.

by the way, i really interested in declaration of independence of USA, i search it yesterday and find many source, i even "strayed" into many war happen for getting independence from great britain, that was a great battle of revolutionary war. did you know where i can find such e book / pdf file that "told" about all war in revolutionary war of USA? since book price is very very expensive in this country. thank you so much heather.