I THINK I might want to try this. Any advice on hatching?

[lightchick]

I can't find the thread that talked about the temp to get more pullets!

Since it's a fridge egg that increases my chances right?

 

[Yorkshire Coop]

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/917761/hatching-pullets

Have just found this for you it says something about temp on the higher side.

 

[lightchick]

Thanks for the link!
I'm going to incubate at 99 degrees. Does that sound like a good temp? I'm really hoping for a pullet! I live in town so I don't know if a rooster would be OK. Do you think I got good chances?
I'm only hatching one egg.

 

[lightchick]

OK. I have the roundest fridge egg and I did another "wives tale" of tying a ring on a string and holding it over the egg and it swung in a circle so that's suppose to mean pullet.
I think I got a pretty good chance?

 

[Yorkshire Coop]

I think I would treat it as a still air incubator and the ideal temp for that is 101 - 102 farenheight. That's because your air is not being circulated around the eggs as it would in a forced air (fan) incubator which the ideal temp is 99-99.5 farenheight. Sure it has a chance and if you don't try you will never know. Trying one egg is very risky though even in an incubator it would be. I never incubate less than 12 eggs because you can get infertile ones and also eggs that are quitters after several days of incubation.

 

[Xiao Casa]

From what I read once (don't quote me because the person who posted this originally got some negative criticism from people who know what they're talking about) the temperature is supposed to be higher, this hatches more pullets than cockerels ONLY because cockerels have less resistance to hot temperatures than pullets. Supposedly the male embryos will die in the shells while the female embyros will hatch OK... gender is determined the moment the egg is fertilized, so you will not be changing what is in the egg. You will only be altering who hatches and who doesn't. But like I said, I didn't try this myself, it's just something I read. I hope you manage to hatch a pullet!!

 

[lightchick]

Yes, I know it doesn't change the gender of the egg at all. If this egg doesn't work then I'll try another one.
Should I put the egg in something? Like a basket or insulated box? Should I put the egg on it's side or should I have it in a egg carton thing?

 

[otterway]

Would love to know how this works, sounds interesting.

 

[dheltzel]

From what I read once (don't quote me because the person who posted this originally got some negative criticism from people who know what they're talking about) the temperature is supposed to be higher, this hatches more pullets than cockerels ONLY because cockerels have less resistance to hot temperatures than pullets. Supposedly the male embryos will die in the shells while the female embyros will hatch OK... gender is determined the moment the egg is fertilized, so you will not be changing what is in the egg. You will only be altering who hatches and who doesn't. But like I said, I didn't try this myself, it's just something I read. I hope you manage to hatch a pullet!!

Small correction, the hen's gametes determine gender, so the gender is set even before fertilization. Just as it is possible to get sex sorted sperm (used in cows now to get mostly heifer calves), it would be possible to determine the gender of even an unfertilized egg (to what end I have no idea).

I heard that it's the pullets that are more sensitive to temp fluctuations and you can have them die at a higher rate than the males. I've never seen any scientific evidence to either side.

As far as shape of the egg, that tends to be fixed for a particular hen, and it's very possible that a hen might produce non-viable gametes of one sex and her body might reject those and use the viable ones only. So, it might work to separate by shape (or size or color, since those often are mostly fixed for a hen's laying cycle, if not lifetime). It would be intriguing to try to identify hens that produce mostly "female" eggs and somehow select for hens that do that.

But on the whole, color me skeptical. There would be a lot of money at stake in the commercial hatchery business if it were possible to sex eggs in any reliable way. Sell the male eggs for eating and hatch only the female eggs. It would cut many of the costs in half and add a revenue stream, a win for everyone. Even if the males all died during development (with a lethal gene of some sort?), that would be a big win because they could candle and remove those early.

 

[lightchick]

I have eggs all from the same hen. So I just picked the roundest out of hers. I had to get rid of my roo so I want a daughter of his.
Should I do as the very last post says or just incubate at 100 degrees?
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/...le-or-female-egg-92-accurate/10#post_14162213
The egg has been out of the fridge for 3 and a half hours and feels room temp. Can I start incubating yet?!
Should I put it in something or what?????? Anyone know??????