Experiment Trying To Hatch More Hens

[Mylied]

Because who needs roosters, poor creatures. If they do, I'll give them some.
Anyhow, I have read more than one article about hatching chicken eggs that have been refrigerated will produce more hens. The theory behind it is supposedly a male egg will not as likely survive if the egg gets too cold.
This brings to mind a few years ago in the dead of winter I had neglected collecting eggs. Then i had a small bantom hen get into the nest and start sitting on eggs. I felt that it would be hopeless but a couple of other chickens got next to her and I figured they were just trying to stay warm. I never saw chickens go broody in February like that. But I just left her alone believing it was rediculous. During the day the other chickens would get out of the nest and leave her alone. But at night they would stay in the nest. I just ignored it intending to handle it some other time. Then one morning I saw she had biddies. 11 hatched. There were some eggs that didnt hatch too all in that nest.Later I would learn that they were 9 hens 2 roosters.
So that makes me think there could be something to the articles I read.
Is there any of you that's ever tried this?
Wednesday I started the incubator with 12 eggs that had been in the refrigerator to experiment.

I didn't read all replies but I regularly refridgerate my eggs before hatching and I do not get more females than males. It's 50/50. Running the incubator at a lower temp also does not kill off males, it just kills off some embryos so you get less chicks. If there were a way to produce more or only females, the big farmers would have found it.

 

[FortCluck]

Can you Post your results on here with a new comment so that we all can get updated because if you create a new thread, we will not be able to see the results unless we look for the new thread.

This will be interesting

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Yes, that's the idea. That male embryos are more sensitive to cold, so you'll hatch more females than males. Since chicken eggs are not like reptiles and cannot change sex, even though some people still think they can.

I'd rather just deal with the males than stress them all with refrigeration.

Agreed.
So it is the same concept as those who believe higher or lower incubation temperatures favor one sex over the other. All they are doing is killing some potential live animals.
Optimum conditions should make all the birds more vigorous.

 

[FortCluck]

How's the incubation going?

 

[BroodyCluck]

There is a fairly lengthy thread here of people that have hatched Trader Joe's fertile eggs. Those eggs would have been refrigerated for some time before being set. Check that thread for what the male:female ratio has been.

As others have said, any results reported here are anecdotal at best. For anywhere near a definitive trend, one study would have to hatch tens of thousands of eggs from perhaps 10 or 20 breeds to mean anything at all.
I've seen many of these old wives tales tout things like egg shape, incubation temperature and now this - refrigerated eggs as a predetermination of sex.
The articles declaring such results are nonsense when one considers how sex is determined and it isn't environmental conditions or egg shape.
I find it interesting that if there were any veracity to these claims that egg producers around the globe who collectively hatch billions of eggs a year and have to sex chicks and discard of all males haven't started refrigerating their eggs or selecting oblong eggs. Wouldn't that have saved them a lot of money?
It is all nonsense.

Ok, I have proved for myself the egg shape theory is wrong because round for hens pointed for Rios. I have so far gotten Hens from 1 hen's pointed eggs.. I don't feel absolutely sure that the cold egg theory is going to be right but I've gone this far so I'll try to see it out as I said.

 

[BroodyCluck]

I didn't read all replies but I regularly refridgerate my eggs before hatching and I do not get more females than males. It's 50/50. Running the incubator at a lower temp also does not kill off males, it just kills off some embryos so you get less chicks. If there were a way to produce more or only females, the big farmers would have found it.

 

[waddlehead]

To bad no one made this thread earlier. I just got done with my first hatch from my own birds. (They are 2 weeks old) So half way through my egg collecting I read a few places refrigeration reduces hatch rate so I stopped. I followed every wives tale under the Sun in an attempt to get mostly hens.. To bad I have no clue which ones were refrigerated now...

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Ok, I have proved for myself the egg shape theory is wrong because round for hens pointed for Rios. I have so far gotten Hens from 1 hen's pointed eggs.. I don't feel absolutely sure that the cold egg theory is going to be right but I've gone this far so I'll try to see it out as I said.

It will still only be anecdotal, not a real study that would take tens of thousands of incubated eggs from several breeds/strains to prove anything.
People who hatch a handful of eggs can still get all pullets, all cockerels or a combination thereof no matter the technique.
If it did work, all one would be doing is causing cockerels to not develop.

To bad no one made this thread earlier. I just got done with my first hatch from my own birds. (They are 2 weeks old) So half way through my egg collecting I read a few places refrigeration reduces hatch rate so I stopped. I followed every wives tale under the Sun in an attempt to get mostly hens.. To bad I have no clue which ones were refrigerated now...

It doesn't matter.
If it did make a difference, in hatch ratio, all one would be doing is to hatch fewer, less vigorous chicks.

 

[BroodyCluck]

Because who needs roosters, poor creatures. If they do, I'll give them some.
Anyhow, I have read more than one article about hatching chicken eggs that have been refrigerated will produce more hens. The theory behind it is supposedly a male egg will not as likely survive if the egg gets too cold.
This brings to mind a few years ago in the dead of winter I had neglected collecting eggs. Then i had a small bantom hen get into the nest and start sitting on eggs. I felt that it would be hopeless but a couple of other chickens got next to her and I figured they were just trying to stay warm. I never saw chickens go broody in February like that. But I just left her alone believing it was rediculous. During the day the other chickens would get out of the nest and leave her alone. But at night they would stay in the nest. I just ignored it intending to handle it some other time. Then one morning I saw she had biddies. 11 hatched. There were some eggs that didnt hatch too all in that nest.Later I would learn that they were 9 hens 2 roosters.
So that makes me think there could be something to the articles I read.
Is there any of you that's ever tried this?
Wednesday I started the incubator with 12 eggs that had been in the refrigerator to experiment.

Ok, I hope I'm posting in the right place for this. Out of 12 cold eggs I got 7 to hatch. That could be for a number of reasons. 1). My incubator not 100% great but I'm working on it. 2). This time I filled my incubator but I usually get a better percentage hatch rate when I skip first and last rolls keeping the eggs in the center. But I upped temperature to 102. That don't mean it's keeping that temp but what ever it fluctuates. Out of 41 eggs, I got 24. Hatched wednesday before last. But on the 3rd day after hatch date I pour all eggs into a bucket of water then after an hour or so into the garbage. I do that now

to prevent those late hatchlings because I've never seen anything good come from hatching out that late. Seen crippled and

weaklings that soon die. So now that's my solution to prevent that. Now possible reason 3). For 7 out of 12 hatching the reason I'm hoping for. Maybe those were males. Haha who knows. Now these pics are of the 7 chicks I have marked them and kept them separate from the others. Since they will be 2 weeks old on Wednesday, it may be another 6 weeks before I know male or female. Of course if I'm lucky enough to have all pullets, it still don't prove anything. But who knows?

 

[BroodyCluck]

Agreed.
So it is the same concept as those who believe higher or lower incubation temperatures favor one sex over the other. All they are doing is killing some potential live animals.
Optimum conditions should make all the birds more vigorous.