Buckeye Breed Thread

[buffalogal]

I read somewhere that long, bullet shaped eggs were predominantly males, while the rounder, more normal egg shaped eggs were predominantly females. If all of your eggs are bullet shaped, it' will be interesting to see what percentage of each sex you end up with.

 

[Tailfeathers]

Buffalogal, if you can find that, please let me know. That's interesting and I'd like to save it for future reference if you can find the source. I remember seeing something a long time ago about egg shape but now I can't remember at all what it was. I do remember that both the male and female contribute to color though.

God Bless,

 

[buffalogal]

For the life of me, I can't remember where I read that, I mean which book; I'm certain it wasn't online. One day, I'll either stumble across it again, or the brain fog will clear and I'll remember.

Unlike mammals, the hen determines the sex of the chick, so it makes sense to me that eggs of one shape would be predominantly one sex or the other, especially when you're talking about a hen that consistently lays one kind.

 

[Tailfeathers]

I just went back and re-read your post. I think I read it wrong the first time. Having read it again, I would have to say I don't think the egg shape has anything to do with the sex of the chick at all.

Based on some articles I've read in the PP and my own observations from the eggs I've hatched, egg shape is hereditary and therefore that would tell me that there are certain genes which determine the shape of the egg. These I would think would be totally unrelated to the sex of the chick.

I hatched out over 150 Ameraucana eggs alone this year. There are certain eggs that I get in which I just know who the mother was by the shape and color of the egg the pullet lays. I checked this out last year when curiosity got to me one day and I had time to go check my breeding records.

I know I've gotten males and females from all of my eggs - some very bullet shaped, others almost round. And I have never noticed any distinguishable difference in the sex ratio. Also, it seems to me if the egg shape correlated to the sex, you could not get both sexes from a particular egg shape.

God Bless,

 

[punky rooster]

I think that Royce is correct, but I'd be interested to see what ga_goat gets from their eggs.
You never know, though,
Mitch

 

[Chickielady]

Quote:
X2 me too.
And to add to what Royce has said, I have further noticed that from one day to the next, a certain hen's egg can change due to a scare, trauma, such as sent to a show or the sight of a predator, or maybe due to weather, feed changes.
For the most part, they are stable after 1 year of age, and lay the same size & shape egg daily.
Even with all the birds I have, I can still pick out individual hen's eggs.
Weird huh?
You just get to recognize which lays what.
For example, my Blue Copper Marans lay a huge (Jumbo) very round egg, and it is impossible to tell where the air cell is without candling, which also is difficult due to the dark egg color.
Buck pullets so far seem to be a perfect egg as you would imagine it, and after a few months they elongate to a more bullet shape.
Same so far with Black Javas.

 

[Chickielady]

Quote:
Holy Cow, if it were only true!!!
For the most part, so far, all my buck eggs are the same, they are egg shaped

Neither elongated nor round..but we'll see as they age.

Broody update:

The 7 mo old broody is undeterrred.
She sits on 2 unfertile java eggs in the brooder room.

She is eating & drinking daily.
There is eggs in the incubator, so in a week or two I will give her some chicks.
Hopefully she will accept them & be out of the broody stupor & start eating better again.
What a doll she is!!
A baby herself!!

 

[Jake Levi]

CL that 7 mo old broody is something that you REALLY dont want !!

Ship her to me !!

Re: egg shape, I have noticed from their beginning most pullets have distinctive eggs, then gradually they all look very uniform. They do tend to get larger then the initital 'pullet' eggs.

 

[buffalogal]

Pullet eggs are smaller, the size should increase as the bird matures. The actual shape of the egg is determined by the muscles in the hen's oviduct, but the sex of the chick is determined by the hen. Just as some male mammals produce predominantly one sex or the other, I don't see why it wouldn't be possible for a hen to produce predominantly one sex or the other. I've heard people say "Well,*I* hatched a pullet out of a long skinny egg before, so see, that's not true", but they're overlooking the word *predominantly*, which is not the same as "always".

I'm inclined to think of it as having a hen that's predisposed to produce only one sex of chick over the other; an unusual shape just makes her eggs more noticeable.

Because I sell eggs, I do know that if I had an entire line of birds laying bullet shaped eggs, I'd be selecting against them. That's because when people see long, skinny eggs wobbling in the carton they don't think they're getting their money's worth regardless of the actual weight of the egg. Kids think oddball eggs are neat-o, Moms not so much.

 

[Blueface]

The Ohio National was a success for the buckeyes. Jason Paige had the Best of breed with a pullet and Sydney had the Reserve breed with a cockerel. Jason's pullets made reserve champion of the American Class. 31 buckeyes in the open show and 13 in the junior show. Pictures are below. What bothered me was what the judge told me when judging was over. I asked about the buckeye color and I was told that mahogany or red was the wrong color for the buckeye and that the SOP was incorrect (his exact words) and the birds should be more of a lighter BROWN color. We have an APA judge at a pretty big show saying that the standard of perfection is wrong.