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

[catwalk]

Just read on another forum that feeding the hens sorghum/millet will increase the female:male ratio. It said that it was tried on one hen (not a large sample, I know) and the hen hatched 4 pullets to one cockerel. I don't know what her ratio was before the experiment....

There are also those who have heard about keeping the hens under blacklight. They saw they will try it this year and report back.

 

[Ban seabhag]

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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!!

One of his feedback remarks was "Whatever!" Then he started selling "plans'.

Someone probably bought them!

 

[Laurieks]

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Ouch!

My goats have 'hatched' more doe kids than my friends' goats, even in 'buck years' (when everyone seems to have boys). Our well water pH is ~6.0 most of the time, that might have something to do with it.
My only child is a boy. *sniff* never got the second child I wanted so bad.

I used an old crystal pendulum on 4 silkie chicks at hatch; 1 girl 3 boys. Now they look & act like 2 girls 2 boys.
Someone said it worked on eggs, so I just tried the crystal AND a magnet on the Lav Split Orp eggs I just bought from Tony; both methods said 3 boy & 13 girl eggs. This I really WANT to believe!

ONE hatched... the rest clear... but she's a she, so far.

 

[OzarkCountryGirl]

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I did an informal experiment with the "round vs narrow" egg theory this past season...I set ten eggs, with nine of them round and only one narrow egg. Ended up hatching out a single roo, with the rest all pullets. In saying that, since they were hatched out under a hen vs. an incubator, I don't know which egg the roo actually came from. So I'm going try it again and this time I'm going to hatch them out in an incubator and mark the chick that comes from the narrow egg (providing the narrow one hatches) as soon as it clears the shell. If I get a good hatch from both the round eggs and the narrow egg, and the one from the narrow egg ends up being the only roo, then I may take it a bit more seriously.

 

[chickenmeadow]

OzarkCountryGirl: Glad to hear someone else tried it. I will too & mark the pointed egg to see if it hatched. Don't think I'll open the incubator to mark the chick though. But, I will have the urge to see it hatch & then follow it with my eyes so I know which one he is for the next 20 or so hours until they all hatch, then I'll open the bator & mark him. Ahhh.... the urge has already left me, as I know I'll just fall asleep. Thanks for your input; I'll do my best to test it also on my next batch.

 

[muddstopper]

Now this is just my opinion and nothing else. Nature has a way of balanceing out animal population. I think it has more to do with hen to roo ratios than it does with pointy eggs or magnets. Put yourself in the position of a hen. She lays the eggs and is the one getting harrassed by the roos. Now if that roo is giving her more attention than she wants, it would stand to reason she might want a few more hens around to take the load off herself. In this case, she might be more inclined to lay pullet eggs to hatch out and give the roo something else to chase around the pen. On the other hand, lets say that there are way more hens than one roo can satisfy. In this case the hens might lay a few more roo eggs to increase the chance that she might get a little more attention. One thing I have noticed with my own eggs, but not really documented, is we seem to be hatching more hens than roos. I keep all of my hens to roo ratios at 4 hens to one roo and so far it seems we are hatching out more hens than roos. I also have one coop that has 8 hens and one roo and these hens seem to produce more roos than hens. Now I dont know if this is coincidence or if there might be something to this balanceing act of nature. Anyways, just thinking out loud.

 

[chickenmeadow]

muddstopper: Thanks for thinking out loud & sharing what is working for you. Makes sense to me, as nature knows what it's doing, even if we humans have different ideas in mind. So, the "ticket" is 4 girlies to 1 Romeo. Glad you brought up this point.

 

[muddstopper]

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I didnt say this is 100% guaranteed to work, it just sort of seems that way

 

[chickenmeadow]

muddstopper: No worries, sorta seems that was is worth considering! We're just having fun sharing ideas. Thanks for your input.

This week the incubator starts up again, I learn something new just about every time.

 

[donnie]

that sounds like what my grandmother said to do to a pregnant woman