I heard a study long ago about if a hen is stressed then lays a clutch then goes broody most chicks will be hens

[Weeg]

Just can't imagine how you measure stress on a chicken. EKG? And how do you stress her? Electrodes? Make her watch bad movies? Political commercials? Dr. Phil?

Dr. Phil might work haha! A documentary about battery hens or factory raised for Cornish X maybe.

 

[raingarden]

Was it this article?
https://newswire.caes.uga.edu/story/7681/Sex-Ratios.html

Interesting.

 

[Bryce Thomas]

Just can't imagine how you measure stress on a chicken. EKG? And how do you stress her? Electrodes? Make her watch bad movies? Political commercials? Dr. Phil?

LOL! that gave me a good laugh, but seriously i dont know how you measure stress on a chicken, only way I can think of is doing blood test to see the level of cortisol in her bloodstream, other than that I think there is no way

 

[The Moonshiner]

And how do you stress her?

Hit her on the head with an acorn and tell her the sky is falling?

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Hit her on the head with an acorn and tell her the sky is falling?

Thanks, Moony, had not thought of that!

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Thanks, Moony, had not thought of that!

But I actually heard you the first time ....

 

[The Moonshiner]

Thanks, Moony, had not thought of that!

No problem.
I'm good at being the brains of any operation.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

No problem.
I'm good at being the brains of any operation.

 

[LaFleche]

And how do you stress her?

Nasty rooster(s) overmating and/or chasing and kicking each other off the hens.
Overcrowding.
Aggressive and bullying flock mates.
Cold stress.
Malnutrition and lack of feed.
Not enough nesting boxes.
Not enough roosting space.
Miniature prefab coop with miniature "run".

The list goes on....

 

[LaFleche]

This might sound weird but I have heard a study done in australia that wondered if you stress out a hen while she is laying a clutch of eggs most eggs will be hens, and what I mean be stress is just stress such as overmating by a rooster, bullying, low food or very little and so on. I then realized that my black hen shadow was stressed while having her clutch about 2 months ago and so far all the chickies that are about 10 weeks old still appear to be females? Do you believe that study is true or not?

Edit: https://www.poultryworld.net/Health...y-to-produce-female-chicks-325762E/?cmpid=NLC

If this was true, the poultry industry would not have the problem of the unwanted male chicks hatching all the time.

On the contrary, from my experience with my own flocks I can say, that ongoing stress for my hens always produced more male offspring. And ever since I made sure to reduce the stress to an inevitable minimum, the percentage of female offspring rose significantly.

One year, I even had all the hens with their favourite Kraienköppe rooster produce all female offspring. He was the most considerate rooster and they loved him.