Are people really this ignorant about chicken biology?

[jjhuntsalot]

I had a friend once whom I gave a dozen farm Fresh eggs. She was afraid to eat them because they were brown. Then She asked if they just paint the white store brand eggs before they sell them. needless to say I laughed so hard i cried.

 

[Rillion]

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Given the amount of artificial coloring they use in food these days, I guess that's not so bizarre a question...

 

[msgenie516]

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Are you sure? Females should only have XX chromosomes. The male XY determines the sex the fertilized egg will turn out to be, or so I thought.

I believe this is how it is with humans but chickens are the opposite. However, I'm not an expert so I hope Speckledhen answers you, too.

 

[speckledhen]

In avian species, the female determines the sex of the chick.

From this article (with cool pictures):

http://people.eku.edu/ritchisong/avianreproduction.html

“In most animals sex ratio is close to 50:50 and extremely resistant to change. In mammals, including humans, the sex of the baby is determined by whether the sex chromosome in the sperm is male or female. But in birds, it is the female’s egg rather than the male’s sperm that determines what sex the chick will be. Thus the female has the potential to determine the sex of her young by whether she ovulates male or female eggs. In some way, female Zebra Finches seem to be able to exert control over whether to produce a male or female egg depending on which of the two is most likely to be successful. Our research tells us that they do it, and we understand why. The big question is: how do they do it?”

Males have ZZ and females have ZW chromosomes, not XX and XY like humans.​

 

[speckledhen]

After numerous reports, we have decided to shut this one down. Thanks for your participation.