Did I hatch all roos again??

[Snowchicken56]

My first hatching experince was a few months ago, and I got 8 chicks and 6 were roos.

Set some more eggs, and these 5 hatched. And I am worried they are all looking like roos again!! These guys are just about 6 weeks old. Any thoughts? These are all mixed breeds, no idea what they are mixed with as they were hatching eggs from ebay.

 

[chooks4life]

:/ Unfortunately, to me, they do all look male.

If you hatch your own, from your own hens, first I suggest you try upping the iodine content in the female's feed. Lack of sufficient iodine skews the gender ratio as girls need more, so female embryos tend to fail to survive on what are commonly considered maintenance levels for laying hens. It's enough for the mothers, but not enough for their potential daughters.

It'd be simple to just add some seaweed to a yoghurt sandwich for argument's sake and tear or cut it into little bits and throw it to the girls once a week, to supplement the insufficient iodine levels they add to the premixed feeds, I reckon. After a month or two of that you should be getting more female offspring. Sounds like an old wives' tale, I know. So does this: breeding chickens over a year old is more likely in my experience to give you female offspring. I breed chickens under a year old specifically to get 'edible crops' of almost entirely males, and poor quality ones at that. I mean, they're good enough, but they won't hold a candle to their future brothers bred from the same parents once they're over a year old. Something about breeding juvenile parents generally gives me inferior, and male, offspring. Works for me anyway.

Best wishes.

 

[Snowchicken56]

Thanks for the tip, it is definitely worth trying. It's pretty discouraging trying to get some more pullets foe egg laying and ending up with all cockerels.

 

[chooks4life]

lol tell me about it, I haven't had access to seaweed or kelp for a while and I'm having the same ratios hatch.

(Got boys coming out of my ears). Last few clutches were 100% male! Last two I have two or three females in.

 

[Snowchicken56]

I finally ordered some sexed chicks a few weeks ago, as I am just having terrible luck with hatching all these boys!! Chick #3 and #5 are SO sweet. Like crawl into your palm and fall asleep while you pet them sweet. I may try to keep them and see if they still behave as adults (I have a 6 year old son and am nervous about owning roosters with a small child).

 

[chooks4life]

I've had dozens of roosters free ranging with hens around small kids unsupervised without a problem, once you learn to spot the warning signs you can nip them in the bud and remove the individual before it reaches a dangerous age and size. Zero tolerance policy for aggressive behavior, or other threatening mindsets, works best in my experience.

One can make all the excuses they like as to why a chicken is aggressive to humans but at the end of the day it's our responsibility to keep our children safe, including from our own animals, and that's best done by not keeping ones that are aggressive to humans.

Sound temperament is a generational thing, you do get some nice offspring from aggressive roosters and some nasty offspring from nice roosters, but if you've been selecting for good temperament for a few generations that basically ceases to occur and all you get are temperamentally sound chickens. The only time I ever get temperament issues now is when bringing in fresh blood, it's easy and quick to select against bad temperaments, and quite effective.

It's when we give better offspring from nasty roosters (or hens) a chance to breed that we're muddying up the lines and gambling on who's going to inherit what temperament, then you get nasty ones popping up 'out of the blue'... But it's not really out of the blue, it just skipped a generation or two.

If you get good roosters your kids will be just fine.

Just need to add, about diet, if you want to really skew the gender ratio in your favor, get your chickens off all goitrogens, as they deplete or impair the processing of iodine in the body. That includes any lucerne/alfalfa, legumes, brassica family plants, clover, and soy you might be feeding them, or which might be in their food already. My 100% male clutches were born and bred on diets including soy, because I couldn't get any without it at the time... Individual sensitivity to iodine levels vary in all animals and in the same animals at different times. Many people get ordinary ratios of female offspring on diets including soy, but my chickens apparently don't supply many female offspring on that diet. I've always kept their iodine levels (of organic iodine, sourced from kelp) fairly high compared to many other people as it gives them serious vitality compared to every other feed combination I've had them on, so there's a chance I've selected for higher iodine needs in them. Pros and cons, whatever we do.

Best wishes.

 

[junebuggena]

Number 2 looks like a cockerel with those thick legs. #4's coloring suggests pullet. It's still pretty early to be sure on any of them.

 

[K Spot]

Honestly I think Chick #4 is your only standout cockerel.

I'd keep them all for a couple more weeks just to be sure.

 

[Snowchicken56]

That is great to hear there may still be some hope for some pullets out of this group! I will post updated pictures closer to 8 weeks of age. Thanks!!

 

[hicksfamily]

chick 3 looks most like a hen, other ones most likely cockerels.