Australorps breed Thread

[louie2037]

My six year old grandson with one of the chicks; the looks says it all. And yes, he gets just about anything he wants!

 

[Lobzi]

I read the female determines the sex of the offspring just like males in mammals. Why can't you just have a female more prone to males just like king George was prone to daughters?

Perhaps your added stress puts one of your particular more male producing hens off laying eggs as often giving you different results than if everyone was unstressed. . Would be interesting to monitor who lays what both stressed and unstressed.

It is just my theory based on how Ive observed broods in my yard. At times where the number of roos is up and I notice the hens being constantly jumped by the males I get more females in the hatches. When things are calm and the roo number is down, I get more males in a hatch. I also note that when eggs are purchased and hatched from a hatchery, they seem to get more males. Im assuming that the conditions in most hatcheries is one where there is limited roos and mostly hens, maybe just a single roo to assure a certain breed that they are promising in their sale. Does that make sense. Fewer roos leads to low stress for the hens. Stress definitely effects hormone level. Hormone level might effect sex of ovum and therefore the male/female offspring in a hatch. This also makes sense to me as far as survival of the flock. When the roo number falls too low there needs to be more male babies but when the male number is high, there needs to be more females in a hatch. Again, this is just my theory. No science behind it other than my own observation.

 

[hellbender]

It is just my theory based on how Ive observed broods in my yard. At times where the number of roos is up and I notice the hens being constantly jumped by the males I get more females in the hatches. When things are calm and the roo number is down, I get more males in a hatch. I also note that when eggs are purchased and hatched from a hatchery, they seem to get more males. Im assuming that the conditions in most hatcheries is one where there is limited roos and mostly hens, maybe just a single roo to assure a certain breed that they are promising in their sale. Does that make sense. Fewer roos leads to low stress for the hens. Stress definitely effects hormone level. Hormone level might effect sex of ovum and therefore the male/female offspring in a hatch. This also makes sense to me as far as survival of the flock. When the roo number falls too low there needs to be more male babies but when the male number is high, there needs to be more females in a hatch. Again, this is just my theory. No science behind it other than my own observation.

Actually from what I've seen, for breeds of cocks that will tolerate each other, they generally carry a heavy ratio of them, often way more than would be required to get the job done.

For breeds like Games or other more surly types, they have one cock to 5 or 7 hens. The only thing that I saw that surprised me was a Non-breed called Saipan Jungle Bird, they have bunches of cocks/cockerels with the hens because they seem to mature VERY slowly and not liable to fight until past age 2.

I say Non-breed because from every honest thing I can fine about them, they no longer exist in the US in its pure form, if it ever did. What they sell is a mish-mash of Orientals that gets quite large and they are quite handsome birds too. But, when they get mature, they are waking death to other mature cocks but totally human-friendly.

 

[Lobzi]

All we have is observations to base our ideas on. I wish someone would actually do some research on this. It would be interesting to know if the hen's hormone levels do actually change in stressful environments. It seems that as least would be easy to study by researchers. Now whether this would actually effect the sex of the ovum and therefore the ratio of male to female offspring would be much more difficult to determine Id think.

 

[Lobzi]

I read the female determines the sex of the offspring just like males in mammals. Why can't you just have a female more prone to males just like king George was prone to daughters?

Perhaps your added stress puts one of your particular more male producing hens off laying eggs as often giving you different results than if everyone was unstressed. . Would be interesting to monitor who lays what both stressed and unstressed.

I think that a certain hen might be more inclined to brood a certain sex. Now what would cause her to be hatched with more female than male ovum, I dont know, but maybe the hormones of the mama. I do know that I thought I had what I called "my golden hen" once. She was young and very popular with the males. Her first brood was 5 females and one male. I was sure I had a winner here. Next brood reversed, with more males than females. The only change I made that I know of was I got rid of some of the roos and she had aged some months. That is when I started formulating my theory and paying attention to broods in my yard. I also asked friend who had ordered eggs for hatching or used the "fertile" Trader Joe eggs for hatching. All reported many more males in the hatch than females. Im just speculating about the conditions at the hatcheries and yard where Trader Joe gets its 'fertile" eggs. Why would they want to house and feed any more roosters than necessary to get the job done. They would not and therefore the mating stress on the females would be very low.

 

[orumpoultry]

The eggs I hatched weren't mine, I don't have an Aussie rooster. I also had some chicks shipped, all in the same week. The shipped chicks are, also, mostly male. I think in my case it's just dumb luck...

Although from past experience, I did have hens that seemed to produce more pullets in their broods and hens that produced more roosters. I noticed it more regularly in my Clarets.

 

[jbkirk]

Soooo you guys think that having more roosters in the pen makes the hens have more female chicks? right?

 

[ronott1]

Soooo you guys think that having more roosters in the pen makes the hens have more female chicks? right?

No, why would that happen? The egg that the hen lays is either a male or a female. Having more roosters might cause them to have a higher fertility rate though.

The hen has not control over which egg is laid.

 

[DesertChic]

All we have is observations to base our ideas on. I wish someone would actually do some research on this. It would be interesting to know if the hen's hormone levels do actually change in stressful environments. It seems that as least would be easy to study by researchers. Now whether this would actually effect the sex of the ovum and therefore the ratio of male to female offspring would be much more difficult to determine Id think.

As interesting (and helpful) as a study like that may turn out to be, it would probably also prove disastrous for the chickens themselves. I can just imagine people creating "stressful" environments in the hopes of increasing pullet production.

 

[ronott1]

As interesting (and helpful) as a study like that may turn out to be, it would probably also prove disastrous for the chickens themselves. I can just imagine people creating "stressful" environments in the hopes of increasing pullet production.

There are studies on ways to get pullets over cockerels. Hatcheries would love to find a way to get mostly or all pullets in a hatch.

They have not found a way to do this. For pullet only hatches, the cockerels go straight out a disposal shoot.