...another "influencing egg sex" post

[Intheswamp]

I was reading in an old book, "The Poultryman's Guide" by Quisenberry, no copyright date but probably printed in the early 1900's, that...

"if you mate a strong, active cockerel with hens that are two to five years old, using about 25 or 35 hens with one male bird, you will hatch from 75 to 90 per cent cockerels. To raise nearly all pullets, use an old male bird with 25 or 35 good pullets. You may not have the highest average fertility, but the chicks hatched will run largely to pullets. You will get best results if these birds are allowed to have free range."

Just an interesting notation that made me scratch my head. I have no idea of the truth of this, but something prompted this guy to include this in his book....this was about the time they were promoting using mercury for medicinal purposes, too.

Kinda strange, but...?????

Ed

 

[SunnyDawn]

Quote:
Yep, pretty strange.

 

[tnchickenut]

One rooster to all those hens!?!? I'd be suprised if you got many chicks at all!

 

[RAREROO]

I agree, one roo wouldn't be able cover that many hens


I have a young RIR roo that I had with some barred rock hens for a short time last season to hatch black sexlinks, and I only set a few batchs and didn;t hatch many but the ones that did hatch were all pullets from this roo, I was using an older Buff Orp roo with the same hens before the RIR roo and I got about half and half pullets and roos with the buff roo.

 

[nzpouter]

he forgot to mention the ritual you have to follow before entering the coop, face west, twirl on the spot 4 times, clap 3 times, squat, stand, squat, stand, squat, stand, cock-a dodle do, jump up and down twice and do the chicken dance....

 

[Intheswamp]

Quote:
Wait a minute, I'm kinda new. Do you clap while you're twirling or after you finish twirling...seems that could make a *big* difference. Also, is the chicken dance the classical one or the progressive one?

Ed

 

[momof2monkeys]

You guys! You are so silly. I'm new but even I know that's not going to work. You are supposed to burry eggs dressed in Ken doll pants around the coop and hang GI Joe's from the roof. Those take all the boy germs and leave the girly parts to float into the eggs.
Golly!

 

[ultasol]

I do know this- my male yorkie threw mostly boys when younger (1st litter 2 boys, 2nd litter 2 boys 1 girl). Now that he is older (9) and has had two more litters, they have been female dominant (3rd litter 2 girls one boy, 4th litter 3 girls).

Not enough cases to have anything resembling statistical significance, and I didn't think much about it until I saw your thread, but perhaps in some animals age can influence chromosomes in sperm? Or perhaps it makes some sperm stronger?

Probably completely wrong, but interesting to think about.

 

[embkm]

Birds aren't like mammals. The sex of the offspring is determined by the hen, not the rooster.