incubation temps and sex ..ratio?

[mhwc56]

So i was wondering if anyone had ever heard anything / experienced anything with temperatures during incubation effecting the male/female ratio in a batch of quail eggs they were hatching
The thought occurred to me b/c i used to have Leopard Geckos and with them, if you want a higher female to male ratio then you incubate the eggs at a slightly lower temp than you would if you want a higher male number. When you incubate them the temps are only a very small difference
Anyway, i was just wondering about it and the possibilities or even if you could do it without harm .

 

[Buttercup Chillin]

Birds / Geckos totally different species with totally different rules. (Lizards definately have their own rules, some can change sex at will).

M/F avian species set before you even start to hatch. Studies have been done on just started embryos under scientific study (they do have the equipment), they can tell sex differences as soon as an embryo starts to develope. (these studies have been done on chickens and Coturnix). This is a known from studies done that the report or abstract are on the web. Don't ask me, I don't track every little abstract out there.

Where the humidy/temp and ambient natural temp/hum/barometric pressure might come into play is the strongest chicks (notably the Males) are better able to survive adverse conditions. Shellyd alluded to this in previous posts. I have a tendancy to agree. As I have seen it in chickens, ducks and am now seeing it in the Coturnix.

This is why hatches are usually done in Spring for a higher ratio of females/males, considered normal at 50%. But the later in the year the more males.

This is why with the Buttercups I sometimes have an October hatch if I am still looking for a better Cockeral. And I have 95-100% hatch rates with them, so its not a matter of well maybe the unfertile or unhatched were female (like with my M Golds Coturnix). When 23 out of 24 hatch and they are all male, something else is involved. Natural selection at play and us just trying to figure out why. So we quess. 10-50 years later, sometimes that answer gets changed after even more study with improved technology. Happens all the time, and anymore it seems, at a faster pace.

Interesting isn't it?

 

[shelleyd2008]

The temps don't affect the development of the chicks like it does with reptiles, though it seems that the 'male' eggs are tougher. I know most times if I lose a large number of eggs during incubation for some reason or another, most, if not all, of the chicks that hatch are male.

ETA: That's probably why I hatch mostly button boys...last 2 hatches were 5 chicks each. First setting hatched 4 male, 1 female, out of 18 eggs. 2nd hatch was 5 males out of 20+ eggs.

Back again: Come to think of it, my first ever hatches of buttons and coturnix resulted in 1 button from 18 eggs---my male blue face---and 2 english whites from 20 eggs---both males there too.

 

[Stellar]

But shelley, you got some cute girly girl buttons in the eggs I sent ya

 

[Buttercup Chillin]

This is what I am trying to figure out, these little birds don't always follow "the theory" or any theory so there has to be something more to it. But drat all those Manchurian Gold Males out there. Maybe I should look at the J. Brown babies, maybe their all female.

Oh, well. Its fun guessing. Some lab somewhere will figure it out and write up a report. Then a few years later it will get released to the public. Then we'll find out what we have been suspecting all along or something totally different.

Oh, Shelly I am almost certain that little Cocoa is a female and the M Gold is female and I think 1 more all from my 10/7 hatch. Well, I know with certainty that I have 5 females so far in that pen and they are 6 weeks today.

 

[mhwc56]

well i was just curious about the possibilities..shucks! temp adjusting for boys/girls would have been awesome.

 

[shelleyd2008]

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Yes but I still got mostly boys, plus I had a fairly decent hatch on those considering my recent track record. I had 26 from you and a dozen or so of my own and hatched 11 or 12, don't remember for sure.

 

[Tony K T]

I wish it were true for pheasants,then I could hatch 1 male to 6 hens all the time.
In N.H.,Tony.

 

[mhwc56]

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EXACTLY only for Coturnix and all those folks with 50 male Buttons for each female ..lol

 

[JJMR794]

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AMEN!