is the sex of a quail pre-determined or dependent on hatching conditions?

[quailswiss]

I got 4 male and 1 female out of my first hatching attempt, plus two dead in the shell. Someone told me that this might be a result of conditions in my brooder. What do you think? what male/female ratios do you typically get at hatching?

 

[James the Bald]

If it were only that easy. Check out this link, the info is pretty interesting. If I only knew the temperature to change it to and when, then my freezer would be full.
James
Edited to add: Mark Ferguson, the professor mentioned in the above article, contributed to a book titled, "Egg incubation - it's effect on embryonic development in birds and reptiles".

 

[quailswiss]

Very interesting, thanks

 

[smallbluejellybean]

If it were only that easy. Check out this link, the info is pretty interesting. If I only knew the temperature to change it to and when, then my freezer would be full.
James
Edited to add: Mark Ferguson, the professor mentioned in the above article, contributed to a book titled, "Egg incubation - it's effect on embryonic development in birds and reptiles".

That has explained a lot to me. My quail have all female hatches in the cooler months and in the hotter month have a majority of male hatches. So I think the article is correct. But after hatching I don't think changing a brooder temperature would do anything. These changes all happen within the shell during incubation.
I am going to an experiment soon with my daughters incubator. I am going to incubate the eggs .3C of a degree colder to see if the eggs hatch out with more females.
We are trying to track down some more eggs from different blood lines to incubate together.
I will post back here when I have some results.