Experiment Trying To Hatch More Hens

[BroodyCluck]

I would post update in original thread so people following see it

I'll try and if I see it won't work, I'll just do another. Thanks.

 

[BroodyCluck]

@Mosey2003 you may have answered for me how my old boss could sell eggs that were pullet line and cockerel line. I was stumped how you could sex an egg

Last lot the girls started quacking at 12weeks. Unfortunately another 2 have passed so I have one left and none to compare to

Are you saying 2 of the 3 you were hatching died? The ones from the refrigerator? Or these were from the past?

 

[BroodyCluck]

Well I candled the eggs the best I could. The ones that had been refrigerated that I have going for the experiment. I really just guessed at the dark ones and sniffed to see if there was any odor. No wasn't. Day 11 incubator.

 

[Muscovy Wunda]

Are you saying 2 of the 3 you were hatching died? The ones from the refrigerator? Or these were from the past?

Yes from the fridge. The last ones going well but

 

[ChickenCanoe]

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.

 

[igorsMistress]

Following. This will be interesting.

 

[igorsMistress]

I'll try and if I see it won't work, I'll just do another. Thanks.

You can still post in this thread, you just can't update your first post.

 

[aart]

hat had been in the refrigerator to experiment.

How many days were they in the refrigerator?
Were they all from the same hen?

 

[ChickenCanoe]

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.

So what exactly is the process that refrigeration is supposed to do to yield more females? Is it that blastoderms destined to be male embryos don't survive the refrigeration? That would just lower the hatch rate.

 

[Mosey2003]

So what exactly is the process that refrigeration is supposed to do to yield more females? Is it that blastoderms destined to be male embryos don't survive the refrigeration? That would just lower the hatch rate.

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.