do eggs that hatch even out with same number of hens and cockerels?

[pigeonsandchickens]

Hi,,,, we have just got a few chickens, with more to come. My question is....

We also have homing pigeons. Pigeons always lay 2 eggs, and one will hatch a hen and one a cock bird. (The hen will have the markings of the father, and the cock bird have the markings of the mother). Anyways, do chickens have any sort of balance or predictability like this?

Thanks,,,!

 

[Wildsky]

Quote:
overall I believe its 50/50 - but unlike your pigeons, you can't automatically assume the first two eggs will be one male one female chick.
You could get all male and your neighbor down the street could get all female.

 

[silkiechicken]

Yep, in the long run with a large enough sample size it will be 50/50 because the same genetic principle saying boy or girl in chickens is the same as in your pigeons. As for color traits, that one can vary.

 

[cassie]

Got a dozen hatching eggs once. Put them under a broody. They all hatched. They were all roos. Every single one. Not what I wanted but they were delicious.

 

[ThePamperedPullet]

No predictibility that I have ever heard of from any chicken breed. Maybe on a larger scale but the hatcheries are always trying to give you lots of roos. We do have a hen that is more likely to lay/hatch hens then roos but for the most part you can usually count on more roos. And that more you want a nice little batch of hen chicks the more you will end up with roos, or so it seems.

 

[Funky Feathers]

With Silkies it seems you get most or all cockerels. I just got really lucky and got all pullets (12).

 

[hinkjc]

You can't judge it based on small hatches. You have to hatch at least a 100 birds to have a valid sample. I can say with my hatches, it always seems to even out to 50/50 by the time I reach about 100 birds from the same breed.

 

[silkiechicken]

Yep, you really do need a large enough sample size.

I mean I had 2 hatches 100% roosters, and a third hatch being 75% roosters from a set of birds... but it was a hatch of 1 egg, 2 eggs, and 4 eggs respectively.

Had a hatch or 24 and got exactly 12 hens and 12 roos.

 

[Krys109uk]

Pigeons always lay 2 eggs, and one will hatch a hen and one a cock bird. (The hen will have the markings of the father, and the cock bird have the markings of the mother).

Actually......that's a myth. Pigeons do usually lay (& incubate) two eggs, the probability regarding the sexes of the squabs being a certain sex runs as would be expected.... 25% chance of being two males, a 25% chance of being two females & a 50% chance of being one of each. The males do not necessarily inherit the phenotype of the mother nor the female inherit the phenotype of the father. The females will be seen to inherit the sex linked traits from the father.

The probability regarding male to female ratios in chickens will work much the same way as in most other animals.​