Accidentally had humidity too low! All hens but 1.

[amberrenee]

I’m just posting this because this happened by accident. Could totally be a coincidence. So I’ve been hatching eggs for quite a few years and the last 2 hatches I realized my humidity was way too low because my gauge was apparently broken. Luckily no chicks got stuck in their shell but the last 2 hatchings have been ALL HENS except 1. My eggs hatched early and over half of them never hatched. It was a real bummer. However the fact that this is the first year I haven’t had mostly cockerels is a blessing in disguise! I later read something here about humidity effecting the hatch rate and temperature possibly affecting which sex hatches. The temp was set the same as always but the humidity was too low.

I found an article implying humidity could affect the hatch rate of cockerels vs pullets but now I can’t find it. I actually did want a couple Silkie roosters so I am a bit bummed this year but also grateful for my hens.

Has anyone else experienced something similar?

 

[Painted Calls]

Pure coincidence.

 

[neo71665]

100% coincidence. If it was that simple people would have figured it out long ago. The only animals I'm aware of that temp and humidity effects sex is reptiles.

 

[amberrenee]

Thank you. What an odd occurrence then.

 

[Tretinker]

That is interesting though, human babies birth sex is also affected by season/temperatures. More girls are born in winter and conceived in winter.

In warmer years the male to female ratio in humans is skewed towards males.

It's not just humans and reptiles, turtles and fish (sea bass for sure) are also affected by temperature when it comes to gender.

 

[Painted Calls]

That is interesting though, human babies birth sex is also affected by season/temperatures. More girls are born in winter and conceived in winter.

In warmer years the male to female ratio in humans is skewed towards males.

It's not just humans and reptiles, turtles and fish (sea bass for sure) are also affected by temperature when it comes to gender.

I'll have to look into this. I had my son in February and my daughter in May.

 

[neo71665]

I was born in march (male) in the middle of a snow storm, my father in march, my brother in October, and my son in September. Skewed doesn't mean hard fact. It's a hard fact with reptiles (which turtles are). The human connection to this is just another coincidence. Once again if it was a fact people would be able to set a temp to have the baby they want. It's a hard fact you can do that with a reptile.

 

[Tretinker]

I have a son in December, daughters in spring and summer but there are hundreds of studies on this.

It's that females are more hardy and more likely to survive being born in winter months and survive early pregnancy when it's cold but that doesn't mean no boys are born or conceived during this time just that female babies are higher.

 

[Tretinker]

It's a bit like as a whole there are more boys born than girls. The ratio is something like for every 106 males born there are 100 girls for the world as a whole. Just because I have 1 boy and 2 girls doesn't make this not true.

I have done some research on this subject in humans specifically and I'm sorry if I've offended by commenting that it was interesting nor did I deny it was coincidence. I just thought it was quite interesting given there are all sorts of fascinating things surround gender deciding factors.

 

[neo71665]

I'm not offended and it is indeed interesting just not anything more than another coincidence with humans.

When I was a teen I raised and tried to breed turtles. Had no issues raising them but getting them to breed in captivity was a mother . That was pre internet days so all my research was suck to prehistoric books. It was fun playing with nature and with just playing with the temp adjusting what came out of those leathery shells.