Cockerel pullet ratio high from one hen. Don't breed?

[song of joy]

I saw similar results when I had a vigorous, dominant male in a breeding pen with two pullets for several weeks. The hatch was 2:1 males to females. It's a very small sample size, but it reminded me of something I had read in an old poultry breeding guide, "The A.B.C. of Breeding Poultry for Exhibition, Egg Production and Table Purposes" by William Powell-Owen. It suggests that the hatch will be skewed toward males when a vigorous under-mated male is bred with pullets. Under-mated would mean the male is only with a very small number of pullets.

Here's the quote: "Whichever parent is the weaker, there will be, by a natural law, less of that sex in the offspring. In short, the stronger sex predominates in the progeny." . . . "Where a young vigorous cockerel is mated to pullets, the male sex will predominate and if the male is undermated the same will be the result. If I were desirous of securing more pullets than cockerels I would make adult cocks to pullets."

I don't know if this has ever been tested. It could be an old wives tale, or it could be the voice of experience from folks who routinely bred poultry years ago. It's interesting that the rest of my hatches have been close to a 1:1 sex ratio and those eggs were collected from hens who were free-ranging with roosters at a 1:10 ratio, which meant the males were not under-mated.

 

[MokiYoki]

If she really is genetically predisposed to only laying male eggs then she is a very valuable bird. The meat poultry industry would love to have such genetics. Because they have been researching, studying, and trying to create something of that nature for a few decades.
I seriously doubt your hen is actually failing to produce pullets, its just bad luck, and if Im wrong then prove it and sell her for big $$$.

 

[ChickNanny13]

Very interesting

 

[Lady of McCamley]

I saw similar results when I had a vigorous, dominant male in a breeding pen with two pullets for several weeks. The hatch was 2:1 males to females. It's a very small sample size, but it reminded me of something I had read in an old poultry breeding guide, "The A.B.C. of Breeding Poultry for Exhibition, Egg Production and Table Purposes" by William Powell-Owen. It suggests that the hatch will be skewed toward males when a vigorous under-mated male is bred with pullets. Under-mated would mean the male is only with a very small number of pullets.

Here's the quote: "Whichever parent is the weaker, there will be, by a natural law, less of that sex in the offspring. In short, the stronger sex predominates in the progeny." . . . "Where a young vigorous cockerel is mated to pullets, the male sex will predominate and if the male is undermated the same will be the result. If I were desirous of securing more pullets than cockerels I would make adult cocks to pullets."

I don't know if this has ever been tested. It could be an old wives tale, or it could be the voice of experience from folks who routinely bred poultry years ago. It's interesting that the rest of my hatches have been close to a 1:1 sex ratio and those eggs were collected from hens who were free-ranging with roosters at a 1:10 ratio, which meant the males were not under-mated.

I lean to old wives tale, but it might be due to weakness in the "W" chromosome from the female.

The male is ZZ (two long chromosomes). He will share one of his Z's each fertilization with his sperm (1 sperm per 1 ova).

The female is ZW (one long chromosome, one short chromosome). The mother will share one of her chromosomes in each egg. Some eggs will be Z, some eggs will be W.

If in the hatchings you note 2 to 1 preference for males, you should see about 50% failure rate to hatch as the statistics (if spread over enough egg numbers) would combine the male and female to 50% male chicks (ZZ) and 50% female chicks (ZW).

If a vigorous male were put over a stunted female, it might be possible her W chromosome is weaker causing developmental issues in the female embyros and thus failure to hatch females. You would see favor for the ZZ male chicks as the rooster will always offer a Z and the females Z alone survives.

However, I don't see the possibility in reverse. If a weak male, which Z would be weak? And a Z is also obtained from the female. Her ova would be hardy both sexes, because technically the mother sets the sex of the chicks. I should think you would simply see lower fertility rate, lower hatch rate, but still a statistically even spread of male and female chicks....those that fail would be due to the father, so both female and male chicks would equally fail.

While interesting, I'm back to the fact that it is mere statistics. Less than hardy parents cause higher mortality of all chicks or lack of fertility all together or poor unthrifty chicks, both genders....now THAT I've seen.

Some of the old timer books do have nuggets of wisdom; some, old science or myth.

Lofmc