Another year full of cockerels....

[ShannonR]

There is no way to change the sex of an embryo after the blastodisc has been fertilized 24 hours before an egg is laid.
Temperature out of ideal range may possibly favor one sex over another but that just means more embryos are going to die.

I never SAID there was a way to change the sex of the embryo.... jeez..... but slightly off incubation temps do result in a higher cockerel ratio. I didn't try to explain the workings of that. You seem to be off on your own tangent about the sex of embryo before incubation. This thread is about the HATCHING of more cockerels versus pullets during incubation, not about the sex of embryos before incubating. Apples and oranges my friend

 

[Helloworld]

Just like roo in marans is the producer of dark eggs ability, the hen genetics regarding sex holds true. If we get broody hens we separate them away from group where it is quiet. Or they lay eggs all over her. 4 nests, one used. Always!

May I ask what temp your incubating at?

Found this.
“Apparently it's all about temperature. I've read that if you raise your incubator temperature just half a degree you're more likely to hatch out males; lower the temperature just half a degree and you will likely hatch out more females.

Interestingly, if you hatch under a broody hen, it's thought you're more likely to hatch out more hens. I guess Mother Nature realizes that a flock needs more hens than roosters?”

Oh oh, I need to go turn down my incubators.
If they are young capons are a thought.

 

[Doublete]

I had one of those years... my Brahma are almost 80% male.
My marans are about 70%...
some breeds are 50/50 and others favor the hens

Oh the best is 55 flowery which is auto sexing and I hatched only cockerels! I have another dozen in the incubator

 

[BlueBaby]

I've read egg shape, temperature the first 5 days of incubation, use a ring on a string before you set them...there are so many things people say work

Ironically I was reading not too long ago that the egg industry is working on a test, dna I think?, for the egg stage to find out sex so they don't have to deal with the backlash from how they deal with the baby cockerels.

There is a place that will do DNA sexing:
http://iqbirdtesting.com/information/dna-bird-gender-determination/

 

[Michelle29063]

So, did incubation temp make a difference in the number of cockerels? Or any conclusions?

For me with my two hatches I did drop the temp of the incubator 1 degree to 99.5 on round 2 and get more pullets. However, the first batch of eggs were shipped in from a location where temps were zero to 10 degrees for highs for several weeks before and after I received the eggs so I was expecting to lose a lot of roosters due to the cold but evidently they were not affected. The wives tale about putting eggs in a 40 degree fridge for a few days to kill the roosters evidently isn't so accurate.

 

[Chickassan]

Honestly if you keep good records you can keep track of which hens produce more of each sex.
They really don't tend to shake things up much, so you don't hatch from hens that are proven rooster machines and avoid a good amount of cockrels that way.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

I never SAID there was a way to change the sex of the embryo.... jeez..... but slightly off incubation temps do result in a higher cockerel ratio. I didn't try to explain the workings of that. You seem to be off on your own tangent about the sex of embryo before incubation. This thread is about the HATCHING of more cockerels versus pullets during incubation, not about the sex of embryos before incubating. Apples and oranges my friend

So if the goal is to hatch a higher ratio of one sex over another and we acknowledge we can't change the sex of the embryo, altering the temperature (if that even works) is doing nothing more than killing the embryos of one sex in the shell. What's the difference in that and killing them after they hatch?
Apples to apples.

 

[igorsMistress]

There is a place that will do DNA sexing:
http://iqbirdtesting.com/information/dna-bird-gender-determination/

I'm sorry, should have been specific, the DNA test would ne while it's in the egg phase rather tgan after hatch...this would make it so the egg producers wouldn't have baby cockerels to deal with after hatching

 

[Beccazon]

Actually, in chickens the hens' input determines offspring gender.

I am having a lazy brain morning...what does this mean?

 

[ShannonR]

What's the difference in that and killing them after they hatch?
Apples to apples.

The difference? It's like abortions..... generally speaking, people aren't sick enough to have an abortion AFTER the baby is born. If you're going to do something like that, best to do it before birth, yanno?

I don't even understand what you are arguing about lol, I haven't had enough coffee yet for this sort of nonsense. Carry on.