Experiment Trying To Hatch More Hens

[BroodyCluck]

What I am trying to find out is will these cold temperatures have the potential to produce more hens because the male embryo will stop developing. ( Die, be killed how ever it is explained). Because if u hatch eggs like I do, there are just too many roosters. Not many people have use for them and they are next to impossible to sell or even give away. I do have a daughter inlaw who will process them and have them cooking in no time. And that's what it has come to. I can't do that. :/

 

[BroodyCluck]

Well I'm just checking in and I bet most people have forgotten about the experiment with all the confusion and change going on. The 7 chicks that hatched from the dozen refrigerated eggs are doing well. They are just 4 weeks old Wednesday. But I have not been to go sale any of the others either because of this coriniavirus deal. No one was out selling their goods as usual. I didn't want to go alone. So I still have all 24 beautiful lively chicks. Sunday I have another incubator load of eggs due to hatch.inclu. Something will happen I'm sure. Oh and I didn't mention, maybe you knew, it will be another 4 weeks before I can take a guess about the gender of the 7 eggs from refrigerated eggs. The ones I'm doing.the experiment on to see if I have hens.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Of course if I'm lucky enough to have all pullets, it still don't prove anything. But who knows?

My point exactly.

 

[waddlehead]

Well as pointed out it doesn't prove anything but all 7 of mine hatched. None seem "slow" at all. So far I only have 1 suspected roo. I have 7 more that hatched on the 1st.. By the time I can have suspicions about the new ones we'll know for sure with the first..

 

[Quailophilic]

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.

Its an old thread and I've got no time to read it. But there is no truth in this. On scientific basis, it is upto the hen that lays the eggs. Hens are responsible for male or female offspring.they form two types of gametes say Z and W. While a rooster forms W&W. So its been already decided during the fertilization that which egg will hatch into male and which into female offspring.and chilling has no part in that. If you are having more cockerels then it is upto their mama.

 

[NatJ]

Hens are responsible for male or female offspring.they form two types of gametes say Z and W. While a rooster forms W&W.

Roosters are ZZ, no W at all.

But there is no truth in this.

The anecdote you quoted had lots of females, few males, and some unhatched eggs. So it IS possible that chilling killed more of the male embryos. Not certain, but possible.

This has nothing to do with changing the gender of the eggs after they are laid, just (maybe) changing which ones are still alive when hatching time comes.

 

[Kiraeh]

My understanding of this is a little different than what most in the thread are describing... There's several articles referencing the same study as this one: https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.in...n-change-the-sex-of-chickens-1238516.html?amp

I can't find the study itself to see what the methodology is, but it seems like the uses would be pretty niche, and perhaps not cost-effective.

As I read it, its not refrigeration before incubation, but cooler temperatures(article says 'a few degrees') early in incubation that has the effect, probably very early.

And the effect isn't that it kills more male embryos(tho it certainly would lower hatch rates significantly). The effect is that a small number of genetically male embryos develop into hens. This is something that can even happen in humans, so it seems plausible enough.

So the way to test it would be to set your eggs staggered, maybe a day apart for 3-4 days. 24 hr after your last set, drop the incubator temperature. It says 'a few degrees' and probably means C, so let's drop it to 94° for three days. Accept significant hatch losses.
If any eggs hatch, gene test the hens.

If anyone's able to find the exact study and methodology, of course just copy that. But that's roughly what you'd have to do. There are several problems:

1. You'd almost certainly lose far more potential hens to hatch rate than you'd gain this way.

2. Expensive testing to see if you're successful, of keeping all hens for long enough to hatch enough eggs from them specifically to see if any were laying only roosters.

3. Even if successful, you'd still get roosters.

4. Most of us probably don't have the hatching capacity to reliably produce hens like this. What if it only happens 10% or the time, with a 50% reduced hatch rate? The ratios could be much worse, even.

5. Any hens produced like this would only have male offspring, unless you chilled them too haha.

I'd really like to see the original study, but I don't have the academic access to seriously hunt it down. Any one out there that does?

If this is what's been debunked, I'd be interested in seeing that debunking, I didn't find anything about that either.

 

[Quailophilic]

Roosters are ZZ, no W at all.



The anecdote you quoted had lots of females, few males, and some unhatched eggs. So it IS possible that chilling killed more of the male embryos. Not certain, but possible.

This has nothing to do with changing the gender of the eggs after they are laid, just (maybe) changing which ones are still alive when hatching time comes.

I said what i remember from my high school and that was long ago ....

 

[NatJ]

I said what i remember from my high school and that was long ago ....

And I always forget which letter is which for the bird sex chromosomes, so I looked it up before correcting you But now the correct information is in this thread, for anyone reading it later

 

[K0k0shka]

Wouldn’t a genetic male that develops into a female be infertile though? That’s how it usually works with people anyway. They may have some or all of the reproductive organs, but can’t actually produce offspring. So even if you chill the male eggs into developing as females, if they can’t lay eggs, then they’re useless... unless you need them for meat, but at that point you might as well skip the added expenses and let them develop as males.