Cream Legbars

[Grannychick55]

Hi I have a question that I hope some of the more experinced people would answer I have 5 CCL hens that are laying and I have been hatching all of the eggs so far my male to female ratio is 9 out of 10 have been females a older farmer said that hens are predisposed to hatch more of one sex and they will keep laying more of the same sex that they start with. Is there any truth to this or old wives tales ? Hope he is right

 

[WHmarans]

Hi I have a question that I hope some of the more experinced people would answer I have 5 CCL hens that are laying and I have been hatching all of the eggs so far my male to female ratio is 9 out of 10 have been females a older farmer said that hens are predisposed to hatch more of one sex and they will keep laying more of the same sex that they start with. Is there any truth to this or old wives tales ? Hope he is right

Hi welcome. I just have more non scientific opinion to chip in.. It seems to me the more Roos around the more Roos you'll hatch! When I want to hatch a bunch of female eggs I take the layers away from my Roos and then start collecting eggs I get a lot of girls lol. This sounds ridiculous even to me but has been my experience so I keep sticking with it like superstition.

 

[blackbirds13]

I heard from Jenny today at Greenfire Farms,
The Rees line is not being bred to their current Legbar flocks. They imported 2 lines and have bred that out into A, B, C and D lines. So the Rees birds you buy will only be from imported stock not current genetics mixed in. They are still looking to release in the spring.

Posting also on the Cream Legbar Working Group thread for those who go there.

 

[chicken pickin]

I heard from Jenny today at Greenfire Farms,
The Rees line is not being bred to their current Legbar flocks. They imported 2 lines and have bred that out into A, B, C and D lines. So the Rees birds you buy will only be from imported stock not current genetics mixed in. They are still looking to release in the spring.

Posting also on the Cream Legbar Working Group thread for those who go there.

That is good news. I cant wait to see the offpsring of Rees line that people will be getting later in the year.

 

[DMRippy]

Hi I have a question that I hope some of the more experinced people would answer I have 5 CCL hens that are laying and I have been hatching all of the eggs so far my male to female ratio is 9 out of 10 have been females a older farmer said that hens are predisposed to hatch more of one sex and they will keep laying more of the same sex that they start with. Is there any truth to this or old wives tales ? Hope he is right

I don't KNOW if that is true but with my Rhodebars I get a lot more pullets than roos..... might be the time of year too..... I have heard they will go in cycles and lay more pullets then more roos.... we will see if that changes come spring.

 

[HaplessRunner]

Another tale? A breeder I know claims that incubation temperature affects the proportion of females to males similar to reptiles. I forget which direction she says it goes. But temperature does affect reptile hatching regarding male to females.

 

[lonnyandrinda]

Hi I have a question that I hope some of the more experinced people would answer I have 5 CCL hens that are laying and I have been hatching all of the eggs so far my male to female ratio is 9 out of 10 have been females a older farmer said that hens are predisposed to hatch more of one sex and they will keep laying more of the same sex that they start with. Is there any truth to this or old wives tales ? Hope he is right

Yes. Chickens are backwards from humans (or mammals in general). For example, in humans, males determine the gender of the child. Each time a man fathers a child of the same gender as the last the chance is actually slightly higher that he will continue fathering the same gender. That is why it is so common to hear of all boy children or all girl children in a family, or all but one child of the same gender. It is the same in chickens except that hens are the ones that determine gender. So if you are getting 9:1 ratio you may just be really lucky or you just have a fantastic set of hens! I had an extreme cockerel year this year with Cream Legbars. I'm hoping that doesn't hold true next year. It is often said that the gender balance swings from year to year- I'm hoping that means pullet year for me this year!

Now I also know people who swear they get more pullets if they pair a mature rooster with young hens, and more cockerels if they pair a cockerel with mature hens. I have no opinion on this method as I cannot fathom how the science there would work, but there are those who swear by it.

Rinda

 

[DMRippy]

Another tale? A breeder I know claims that incubation temperature affects the proportion of females to males similar to reptiles. I forget which direction she says it goes. But temperature does affect reptile hatching regarding male to females.

With reptiles the TEMP determines the gender and with chickens that is already set when the egg is laid so that does not work... I tried it some with no results either way. The previous post make more sense.

 

[ChicKat]

Interesting 'age-related' (older rooster) theory. In humans older father is more likely to have a daughter so they say. Here is a study that says older parents (humans) have more daughters

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog...-are-older-parents-more-likely-have-daughters

 

[WHmarans]

Someone smart once told me the hen lays more female eggs if less stressed, compared to more male when a little more stressed. The older male with young female, or younger male with older female theory would in my opinion stress the hen less than her own age group.. as does separating the hens from the roo, particularly if there are several roos around and he's sorta after them all the time lol. Or if having several roos around creates a little more tense situation of competition. So I'd taken that as the tentative explanation of my observed hatch ratios, which are close to 50:50 when the hens are together with roo, and significantly female or all female when separated from roo during egg collection for incubation.

I move the girls together up near the house for a "ladies retreat" lol as dtred put it..they love it there and get lots of treats and I get lots of pullets..all pullets not uncommon. Roo however does not like this and eggs collected soon upon the hens return to the roo are about 60 to 70% male. They are with roo their own age. That was last season. this winter I'm trying to hatch some roos so I'll test the pullet hatch method again this spring with a new set of hens laying.

well anyway.. maybe this is totally wrong! but I am hoping for some roos out of my hatch next week, the previous one I was trying for female and got 100% female.