Can Heat Speed Up The Formation of the Embryo?

[OneCrazyCowgirl]

I have three broody hens sitting on some eggs and I was wondering if heat has any influence on the embryos cycle

 

[loveourbirds]

yes, cooler temps will slow them down, hot temps will speed them up. hot temps seem to kill them faster, low temps tend to kill more of the males, causing a higher pullet hatch rate.

 

[GardenDave]

What, so if I set the incubator at 37 degrees C I'm less likely to get the males hatching than if I set it at 38 degrees C? Is there any fluctuation in the amount of humidity that could produce similar results or does it just depend on the temperature? I didn't think that one degree would make such a difference.

 

[loveourbirds]

to kill the male embryos you have to let the temperature drop several degrees, and bring it back up. as far as humidity fluctuations, most people worry to much about that - keep in mind a hen does not have a built in hygrometer, some days are dryer than others.

im not an expert on this, but i have seen it happen in my own hatches.

 

[GardenDave]

Wow that's very interesting to know. It is a wonder how there are every any cockerels hatch naturally at all then considering how the temperature would drop whilst the mother gets off the eggs to eat. Would you happen to know what the safest, lowest temperature is aprox to lower the chances of hatching males but without putting the females in too much risk, and for how long? I never realised you could do something like this. It must not be very common knowledge because I know many chicken keepers on the allotments and most of them state having to 'neck' the males. I'd rather not have any to begin with lol - nothing I can do with them as I live in the middle of an estate so can't keep them, and I'm vegetarian so don't eat them lol

 

[loveourbirds]

i can only tell you the circumstances where i seen it in my own hatch. you can probably find better answers on the net somewhere.

i use sportsman incubators, this past spring my wife and i went to a wedding. when we came home, we realized we had lost power to our shed where the incubators are. the temps were at 70-72 degrees f. (you'll have to do your own conversions) the outside temp was in the mid 50's and the shed is normally a couple of degrees cooler. i estimate the power was off for about 3 hours. when this group hatched the rate was low; we normally have about 85-90% hatches, this hatch was about 60%. as the chicks grew the ratio of females to males was about 9 to 1. i didnt mention - the chicks were at the end of the second week of incubation.

i dont know how it affects the female chicks, we didnt have any problems raising them ourselves.

as a person who sells breeding stock chicks for a living, this created a problem for us; since we didnt have enough males to go with our females.