Boys, boys, boys.........

[Chickiechick]

Maybe I need to have the water tested.

I posted a few days ago about my coturnix being predominately roos.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=232588
Well just now I decided to seperate out my next batch of teen buttons.
Had 7 out of 8 hatch and guess what ? ............. all 7 are roos

Have another younger batch of buttons that hatched with the coturnix mentioned above. I'm kinda scared to even check sexes as I don't need any more roos .
The good news is 6 are silver or ivory and two are white so at least it'll be harder to tell they are roos for a while

 

[ken429h]

Are both hatches from the same roo?

Ken

 

[shelleyd2008]

That stinks! It seems I have gotten quite a few males out of the last couple hatches I've had (that I kept long enough to tell on). That would so suck having all male buttons! The good thing is that you can keep them together as long as there aren't any females and they have plenty of room. I have too many males in all 3 of my groups and they do well together. The 'parent' birds have been like that since they hatched last Thanksgiving.

 

[Chickiechick]

Quote:
No.
Good variety of parents.

 

[shelleyd2008]

Quote:
No.
Good variety of parents.

I just noticed what Ken said. In birds, the females are the ones that decide the sexes, not the males.

saddina had posted something (don't remember where) about a study that showed female embryos are more susceptible to heat spikes, so maybe that's what happened? Did you have any heat spikes in the bator that might have 'cooked' your girls?

 

[Chickiechick]

Quote:
Yes. I have a couple of 'boy groups' already. Mainly hung on to them while being sure I was sexing them correctly.
Looks like it's time for a summer boy button sale

 

[shelleyd2008]

Good luck with that! I can't even give them away here!

 

[Chickiechick]

Quote:
No heat spikes known.
These buttons were a hatch of 7 out of a batch of 8 eggs. Egg 8 was clear. So a heat spike wouldn't of affected them that way.

The only difference with these recent largely male hatches and previous is the addition of an auto turner.

If my next younger batches end up being mostly males again maybe I'll split the next batch and hand turn half, auto turn half and see what happens to the gender ratio then.

 

[shawnkfl]

i hatched 15 coturnix and only 4 were female. so i kept the four female and one male. some of the eggs are incubating now and this time, the roos will find the freezer!

 

[JJMR794]

Quote:
SENDING THE BOYS TO SUMMER CAMP? (CAMP KENMORE, THAT IS...)