Hatching more pullets than cockerels - WHAT'S YOUR SECRET?

[Ban seabhag]

There was a person on Ebay selling for 9.99 a device for this purpose. A string through a round magnet. Sound familiar? I think people used a wedding ring though to determine sex of babies before birth. A VERY old wives tale! Wonder if he made much on that?

 

[Ariel301]

I've heard of the string/chain method before for other things. It's called dowsing, like they used to do to find water to dig a well. I was told that to determine if a goat was bred or not and what sex the kids would be, you take a chain and dangle it over the right side of the goat. If it swings one way, it's a girl, another way, it's a boy, a different way was for one of each, and if it didn't move at all the animal wasn't pregnant. So I did a controlled test. Two goats I knew were pregnant, one I was not sure (but now know she is), a wether (neutered male) and an intact male. According to the test, not only were all three of the females pregnant, but both males too! And I got different results about the kids' sex every time I tested...they're not on the ground yet, so I don't know for sure what they are, but this method definitely does not work for determining pregnancy. Supposedly they used to do this on humans as well--and if it's accurate, I guess my husband is expecting to give birth to a baby girl soon! I doubt it works on eggs any better than it does on goats or humans.

 

[Ban seabhag]

I love it! Give him my congratulations!

 

[flower]

Seriously funny !

 

[chickenmeadow]

Ariel301: You must not doubt the "string/chain" thingy method, only time will tell. Ha!

 

[Cindiloohoo]

Quote:
Yeah, he has made close to, maybe over now, a hundred bucks on that stupid gadget...lol! Cashin in on the suckers, go look at some of his feedback!! That's actually a local person, not too far from me. People kill me, I've been laughing about that one for some time now!!

 

[chickenmeadow]

Year of the Rooster: Now we're talkin science. Reads like it's environment that stimulates the right hormones to determine the sex produced by the hen. Isn't nature truly fascinating!

But, I think I'm going with:
SteveH: Thanks for the patent #. I'm going to try this as soon as I can decipher the words in the description of the patent. Wow!

ZooMamma: She's got the "mojo" with 2 for 2 pullets. Please rub some of that off on me.

Laurieks: When we were raising goats in the 1980's, I do remember lots of talk about the pH of ACV & baking soda. I miss the goats (munchies & newbies) , they were very sweet & personable. But, don't get me started about the bucks.

 

[LaSombra]

I couldn't even have girls myself, let alone try to get my pullets to do so. I've got 3 boys. I even carried the last one higher up and supposedly, that means girl. No. In my case, it meant he was a pound heavier!

 

[AZKat]

Trying to change the internal PH wouldn't work with chickens, since it isn't the male who determines the sex. I have my doubts about wether it would work with humans either, since it isn't just a matter of how acidic or basic the woman's PH is, but also how sensitive the man is to the PH. Along with a bunch of other factors that can influence the sex. That is why most of the methods to influence sex usually don't work very well, since there isn't just one thing that influences the sex of offspring.

Personally, I think that the bottom line is that its like flipping a coin. If you flip a coin 50 times, you might not get a 50/50 split. But if you flip the coin a million times, it'll be a 50/50 split.

 

[duckluck]

Quote:
Well, if those male goats or your husband give birth, that's sure to make more money than any sure-fire way of determining it! So start the LaMaze class!