I have a bone to pick with all you incubating ppl...

[kodster]

Last big hatch, I had 2/3 little roos. No exaggeration. I did a couple small hatches early in the year then a large one (large for me). I forget the exact number but 2/3 of nearly 60 babies that hatched were cockerels.

Check your temps... too high a temp and you'll get more cockerels than pullets. It may only be a decimal point or two, but it's enough. Try to keep it at the 99.5 but no lower than 99.2 for more pullets.

 

[NessLand Eggs]

note to self, stick to plan of only hatching under a hen!!!!!!

Agreed! One of my hens hatched out 3 adorable chicks! I’m praying that 2/3 are HENS!

 

[NessLand Eggs]

Show qualitynones have beaks too short to hatch naturally

Interesting!

 

[Liz Birdlover]

Oh yeah, forgot to add...there are places in your house that will assume new functionality, or have dual functionality. Here is my favorite area now, the new "brooder room/baby pen/recovery bay".

It is a garden tub, in a bathroom, which for any other purpose besides being solely dedicated to my birds, is useless, in my opinion. Turns out I can heat the whole bathroom to a balmy 95 degrees if I have to. This month, we have nursed a friend's Guinea chick with slipped tendon and a Homing Pigeon that was bullied, back to health. Yup, your house will have more & more "dedicated to bird" areas as time goes on. A big pantry type closet in my laundry room has shelves full of bird supplies, too.

 

[Hip Hillbilly Acres]

Check your temps... too high a temp and you'll get more cockerels than pullets. It may only be a decimal point or two, but it's enough. Try to keep it at the 99.5 but no lower than 99.2 for more pullets.

Am I reading correctly . . . temp determines sex .

 

[Painted Calls]

Am I reading correctly . . . temp determines sex .

That's an old wives tale.

 

[Blackchickmagic973]

Listen here you incubating men and women of this backyard chicken world....

Y'all didnt warn nobody about how addicting this mess is and how it CONSUMES your life!! This is my first time incubating eggs and I think Im worse then the a real mother hen...cant go 30 mins/hour without checking the humidity and temp on all my gadgets.....shining my candling flashlight thru the plastic of the incubator just to see the little 'chicken beans' do their shimmying and make sure veins are still there....when I'm not even home I'm still wondering if they're okay. WHAT IN FRESH HELL!?...

Why didn't I read any of this in a forum or book!? Or am I just bonkers??

Actually, you are quite perfect.. it isn’t a bad idea to check back so often as I made the rookie mistake of not checking them for a couple of hours after the water sprinkle check and the incubator was cooking my babies, only 3 of 7 eggs hatched. Lesson learned the hard way

 

[Coops Dad]

That's an old wives tale.

This literally just occurred to me as I read this exchange. I understand the science regarding what determines the sex of humans and other mammals but am now on the fence with chickens. Theoretically, in animals that carry gender-determining chromosomes in their gametes, gender is determined the moment the egg is fertilized, correct? But the American Alligator can tip the scales to heavily favor one sex or the other by piling compost on the nest mounds to create either a higher than average temperature in the egg clutch or lower than average temp.

How is the sex determined in chicken fertilization? Is the trigger chromosomal as in higher orders, or is it an environmental trigger such as temperature, humidity or a combination of factors independent of the genetic contributions of the parent birds?

 

[kodster]

Am I reading correctly . . . temp determines sex .

Yes, it does, from my own experiences. Someone said it was an 'old wives' tale', totally dismissing that those 'old wives' tales' are usually based in reality. Until you experience yourself, don't dismiss someone else's experiences.

 

[Painted Calls]

This literally just occurred to me as I read this exchange. I understand the science regarding what determines the sex of humans and other mammals but am now on the fence with chickens. Theoretically, in animals that carry gender-determining chromosomes in their gametes, gender is determined the moment the egg is fertilized, correct? But the American Alligator can tip the scales to heavily favor one sex or the other by piling compost on the nest mounds to create either a higher than average temperature in the egg clutch or lower than average temp.

How is the sex determined in chicken fertilization? Is the trigger chromosomal as in higher orders, or is it an environmental trigger such as temperature, humidity or a combination of factors independent of the genetic contributions of the parent birds?

Temp affects the gender of some reptiles. If it was as simple as raising or lowering the temp for chickens, hatcheries wouldn't throw away so many cockerels or put accidental cockerels in pullet orders. They would capitalize on that and run with it.

In birds, sex is determined by the female within her ova.