Is this just a coincidence?

[fowltemptress]

 

[ksacres]

I hatched out 3 EE eggs for a friend (my only 100% hatch!). They were all cockerals. But I really don't think you can tell what sex they are considering they are all supposed to be incubated at the same temp.

 

[4-H chicken mom]

Wouldn't that be sweet if you could tell what sex of a chick was just by looking at an egg?

 

[MissPrissy]

I have read temps do have a cause in determining the sex when hatching eggs.

In La. 'gator breeders control the sex of the eggs they hatch by the temps with a high %age of predictability.

 

[TheOLDNewChick]

MissPrissy is right about the gators... I just never would've thought about that working with chickens.. Did he happen to say if it needed to be higher or lower for pullets?

 

[silkiechicken]

It is only true in some reptiles. Not birds. The sex of birds is determined by the chromosomes that mix from the hen and the rooster. They are determined when the egg and sperm meets.

 

[fowltemptress]

 

[ginasmarans]

I read that higher temps are rougher on female embryos and they may not survive to hatch. I don't think you can chnge the sex of the embryo by changing the temp. Sometimes I get more pullts than roos. I figure it's just a fluke, although for the past 2 Summers, from the chicks that hatched out in August, most of them were pullets.

 

[arlee453]

As posted previously, incubation temps determining gender only works in some reptiles and amphibians, not chickens.

The hen is the one that contributes the gender specific genes, unlike mammals, where the male determines gender.

Cool, eh?

If there was really an accurate way to determine gender hatch percentages from either incubation methods OR looking/testing an egg, there wouldn't be so many day-old chicks 'disposed' of by hatcheries when they are the 'wrong' gender to meet the sales demand.