All females?

[ssbs]

What is the likely hood that all 6 babies I hatched 2 weeks ago are female?? All of them have spotted breasts, they are jumbo coturnix quail.. And does the incubation temp have anything to do with the genders?? One time on Animal Planet they said that lower incubation temperature means more female, warmer means more male.. And my incubation temp was on the low side.

 

[peewee]

At two weeks old they all should have spotted chests. That is their baby coloring. I would give it another two weeks to make sure. If they all come out female I have rooster-bator I will be more than happy to trade you for your hen-bator.

 

[aprophet]

Quote:
this works for reptiles . every thing I have read says it does not work with birds I am still reading

 

[shelleyd2008]

I agree, at 2 weeks old the males are just starting to get their 'boy' feathers. Wait until at least 3 if not 4 weeks before you decide what genders you have. Obviously, it's not impossible for you to have hatched 6 of 6 females, but it is very unlikely.

 

[Rozzie]

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1629050/pdf/rsbl20040247.pdf

Interesting study on one species of birds, with results being that more females than males hatched from eggs incubated at higher temps. However, the higher temps also had a lower overall survival rate.

Since gender of birds is determined at fertilization, this difference in hatch rates probably is due to greater chick mortality during incubation at different temps; apparently, with this particular species, more males died during incubation at a higher temps & more females died during incubation at a lower temp.