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

[simplypc]

Yup hatch is right on 21 days. They start pipping at 20 and are usually all done by 21. Just sexed my last hatch and it was worse. Only got 2 roos maybe. I'm going to start logging all activity in my hatches. It's not like I'm getting anything special I'm just obviously culling before they hatch lol. I'd be more excited if I got 45 hens and 2 roos lol. As it stands I only have a 58% hatch rate with at best 11% roos.

 

[critterkeeper83]

Has anyone tried the temp control method? I know temperature doesn't alter the sex. It only makes certain eggs viable while others freeze/bake. I would love to try this when I get an incubator but I can't seem to nail down any actual temps or times. I did see one thread that said temporarily dropping the eggs to 40 degrees would result in hens hatching

while potential roos were froze out

but it didn't say how long to leave them at that temp and no one has suggested a temp to incubate so the only/mostly hens hatch. I'd rather eat the roos as eggs then have to deal with the problem of too many roos. Too many roos leads to me desperately trying to find them homes before they wind up on my table.

Has anyone tried this or have the b/g ratios of fridge chicks hatched?

 

[BeeSpice]

My mother used the round vs pointy egg method, and claims an 80% success rate.
Naturally, you have to do this relative to the breed of chickens. Some naturally have rounder or or pointier eggs.
Good Luck!
-Zay

Very true. My two teal layers lay torpedoes

 

[Oob Child]

My recipe was luck. I got three female quail on my first ever batch, no males at all. I did want a male, but I had just been starting out so maybe that was for the best.

 

[Oob Child]

Very true. 1My two teal layers lay torpedoes

My recipe was luck. I got three female quail on my first ever batch, no males at all. I did want a male, but I had just been starting out so maybe that was for the best.

Just realised this is a thread from 2010. It seems some people have added comments around 2015-17, but I think 13 years is enough to stay the thread is outdated.

 

[donteatbees]

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.

So, did the blacklight work?