Cockerel to pullet ratio - Why was I so heavy on roos?

[PortageGirl]

The sex is deterimined by the ovum in chickens? That is very interesting, and in this avians are opposite from mammals where the ovum has only XX chromosomes and the male contributes either the second X (which means it'll be a boy) or a Y choromosome (which means it'll be a girl). Yet again BYC teaches me something new!

I see I need to get better edjoomocated on this! Thank you for the info! **walks away grumbling about more reading she needs to do**

((kidding! learning is one of the things I love best!))

 

[duckboatprincess]

I think XX is girl and XY is boy if I remember correctly.

 

[nicegirl40cheetos]

Well, I had spoke to an old farmer a few weeks back and he said that "if it's a wet year" then we will get mostly boys. He said it must be a wet year already because all the calves we have born recently 90% are boys. I think that's interesting. Not sure if that's a fact, but sometimes old timers know stuff like that. ;-)

 

[JewellFarm]

I have hatched around 70-80% cockerels this year. I don't know what's up, but not liking it, lol.

 

[AZKat]

In mammals, females are XX and males are XY. In chickens (dunno about other birds) females are ZW and males are ZZ.

 

[duckboatprincess]

Interesting. That I did not know. Then again, I've mostly studied mammals.

 

[OutInTheStiks]

I'm mostly thinking out loud, so please don't beat me with featherdusters if my thinking is flawed.

Is is possible that temperature and/or humidity could affect the number of pullets vs roos that HATCH? Even though the sex of each particular embryo was determined before incubation began, I wonder if conditions during the incubation process could affect which eggs were more likely to hatch.

For example, if you set 20 eggs and 5 do not hatch. Could temp or humidity affect which 5 did not hatch? Could eggs containing pullets be more susceptible to conditions that would cause them to not hatch.

I'm not sure if I did a good job of explaining myself or not. Any thoughts?

 

[farmin'chick]

I got 16 straight run chicks of 2 different breeds -- 14 were roos!!! It's just the luck of the draw. However, I HAVE heard that putting ACV in the water makes goats throw more does...

 

[speckledhen]

Well, I wish I could breed for pullet-throwing hens, but my hen I was speaking of is suffering from the effects of internal laying and may never lay another egg. I have one of her daughters, who is 17 weeks old now, and popcornpuppy has another, who is younger, so maybe we'll see if they inherited their mother's trait. (there are others, but can't recall who has one of Ivy's daughters except for Ellie in California)

 

[Buck Creek Chickens]

I was heavy on the roo this year too. I hatched alot this year