I have had chickens all my life, but this is the first time I have really had a hobby in them and pay attention to them as far as age and all that. My oldest rooster now is 3....
I am just curious, Those that keep older roosters, have you noticed a difference in the number of pullet chicks verses roo chicks as the roo get older. I read a study somewhere that suggested that as the roo get older, they tend to produce more roo chicks than pullet chicks. The difference I guess would be pretty significant as the normal roo to hen ratio is around 50-50, but with the older roos, the ratio tended to be more 60/40.
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The hen determines the sex of the chicks, not the rooster. A rooster passes on two male chromesones and the hen has 1 male and 1 female chromesone added to the mix.
In birds, moths, schistosomes, and some lizards, the male has two of the same chromosome (designated ZZ), whereas the female has "heterogametic" chromosomes (designated Z and W). In chickens, a single gene on the Z chromosome (designated DMRT1), when present in a double dose (ZZ), produces males while the presence of only one copy of the gene produces females (ZW).