Controlling gender in chickens

[chickenmomma16]

Just found out I have 1 pullet and 3 cockerels... Bummer. This made me remember something I read on an equine reproduction site that discussed the affects of weight loss/gain and the impact it seemed to have on filly/colt ratio. The mares that were loosing weight at the time of conception had a higher filly count and the mares that were gaining weight seemed to produce more colts. They thought that the weight loss/gain affected affected the mares body PH and therefore the female/male "swimmers".

Another explanation I heard was in the wild when food is plenty it is more beneficial to raise colts, so they have plenty of food and can grow into strong individuals. When times are tough it takes less resources to raise a filly and the fillies are almost guaranteed to pass on their genetics weather they had a rough start to life or not.


I wonder if an experiment like this would produce results in chickens?
Something to think about I guess...

 

[Mac14]

Ya I thought I heard something like that somewhere except it was something about the tempeture instead, if that could work.....Oh I do wish.

 

[donrae]

I'm not sure how that would work with chicken's reproductive systems, since they're different than mammals. A mammal mates once and conceives once. A chicken can mate once and lay fertile eggs for up to two weeks from that single mating, so say ten-twelve offspring. Conditions can change a lot in a week or so.

 

[chickenmomma16]

I'm not sure how that would work with chicken's reproductive systems, since they're different than mammals. A mammal mates once and conceives once. A chicken can mate once and lay fertile eggs for up to two weeks from that single mating, so say ten-twelve offspring. Conditions can change a lot in a week or so.

True, their systems are different in many ways. But if say there was a drought in the area (speaking of feral chickens) and the greens dried up and the bugs died off and it lasted maybe a couple months would there be any noticeable differece in in pullet/cockerel ratio?

 

[akcountrygrrl]

So two huge differences would be that after a chicken "concieves" and lays an egg, the only resource the embryo would use for growth in the egg is body heat. But a horse embryo would be using the mare's resources/energy/etc for 10 months.

After hatching, a chick only takes protection/heat from its mother but becomes competition for food. Whereas a foal would continue to take nourishment from its mother as well as becoming competition for food.

I believe conditions wouldn't affect the chickens like it does mammals. I would guess environmental conditions would affect the hen's ability to lay eggs though and rather than putting her energy into setting eggs, she would concentrate on surviving.