Does Lowering The Incubators Temperature Kill The Male Embryos?

[JacinLarkwell]

Personally, I'm on the fence about this but I do have a question. Many are saying that commercial hatcheries don't use this method, so it must not work. How do you know that commercial hatcheries don't use it? Maybe they do. It obviously is not perfect and does not guarantee absolutely zero males, but it may lower the male count. Just sayin.

I think just the sheer number of times males outweigh females in st run?

 

[raingarden]

If someone advertises both straight-run and female-only, do you think they might be slipping a few extra males into the straight run group?

 

[NatJ]

If someone advertises both straight-run and female-only, do you think they might be slipping a few extra males into the straight run group?

I think they are not supposed to. Hatcheries usually guarantee "not sorted by sex," but refuse to guarantee any ratio of chicks.

For private individuals, it would depend on how honest they are, and how well they know what the terms actually mean, and how good or bad they actually are at identifying the sexes of chicks.

 

[Doriss]

Please don't kill them as they are dear little things. Gve them to someone!

 

[hksm97]

Nothing effects the sex. I’ve tried. Hatchery’s kill thousand of males so I think if there was a way to only hatch hens they would have found it. I would not waste my time.

 

[Shahnaz13]

How DO you know which ones are males? You could kill them all....

 

[007Sean]

I've hatched eggs at 95°F -96°F for the entire incubation period (not on purpose) did not effect the sex ratio! Took longer for them to hatch though!

 

[JacinLarkwell]

How DO you know which ones are males? You could kill them all....

You vent sex or produce sexlinked that show males chick down different than the females chick down.

Please don't kill them as they are dear little things. Gve them to someone!

Far, far easier said than done. At one point I had several males that I was offering people feed money to take them, and they still were no interested people. When you cannot legally have males, or have males you don't need, you need to find something to do with them.

This year I probably had close to 50 male chicks. I managed to sell/giveaway 10, about 20 were keepers. The rest had to be processed because they were either aggressive or they just couldn't find a home.

*recounted, had more than I originally thought

If someone advertises both straight-run and female-only, do you think they might be slipping a few extra males into the straight run group?

Hatcheries claim they sort the st run chick orders out before pulling females, that way numbers are unbiased and naturally that ratio. Whether or not they normally do though is another story, especially with the struggling or questionable hatcheries

 

[NatJ]

Many are saying that commercial hatcheries don't use this method, so it must not work. How do you know that commercial hatcheries don't use it? Maybe they do. It obviously is not perfect and does not guarantee absolutely zero males, but it may lower the male count.

Considering how much cheaper male chicks are than female chicks, either they do not use it or it does not work very well. (I'm going by the prices hatcheries list for chicks.)

 

[Ponypoor]

Please don't kill them as they are dear little things. Gve them to someone!

Well, unfortunately you just can't have dozens of roosters running amok - no matter how quiet or tame you think they are they eventually grow up and start fighting. They will beat the living stuffing out of those under them and make life generally miserable for the lower ranking males. And if you have females in the mix it is even more drama and stress.

The unfortunate truth of the matter is you just can't have all these males running around, and there are not enough people that have the space for one 'pet' chicken - and roosters generally do not make good pets like hens do.

Oh I know there are those 'one off' roosters out there that make great pets but the majority of them are not pet material.

If you have livestock you are going to need to find a way to deal with the male critters. And unfortunately Rooster are not that easy to castrate.

In my humble opinion roosters are not 'dear little things'!!! And many hens are also not dear little things - chickens are devious and smart, they are also opportunistic and will take any opportunity they can get to steal food, eggs, sex, kill chicks, and generally cause mayhem and disorder.

I think that is why people enjoy chickens so much - its like a TV drama that runs 24/7!

The old saying goes 'you got livestock - and you got deadstock'.... that's life.