Lemme run a theory past you...

nuthatched

Orneriness & Co.
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Nov 9, 2019
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God's Country, Az
So, we know that in chicken genetics, the dam's (hen) genes control the genders of the chicks. That being said, I believe it would it be possible to isolate this trait to develop a line of chickens, well, hens anyway, that produce female heavy clutches. How many clutches do you think would have to be set by a each hen to determine her gender quotient? A dozen? Then, once you find a hen or two that seem to favor female clutches, her daughters could be screened for that trait, so on and so forth. It would be a dandy trait to work towards in harder to sex breeds like silkies.
 
So, we know that in chicken genetics, the dam's (hen) genes control the genders of the chicks. That being said, I believe it would it be possible to isolate this trait to develop a line of chickens, well, hens anyway, that produce female heavy clutches. How many clutches do you think would have to be set by a each hen to determine her gender quotient? A dozen? Then, once you find a hen or two that seem to favor female clutches, her daughters could be screened for that trait, so on and so forth. It would be a dandy trait to work towards in harder to sex breeds like silkies.
I think it would be possible. If you decide to do this experiment/ breeding project please tag me!
 
You might want to read up on the "Returning Soldier Effect," which shows that mammals seem to be able to do just what you're suggesting above--only from the opposite sex. Scientists aren't quite sure how it happens, but some of their theories might be useful to you.
 
There is nothing to prevent this being done using genome editing. Modify the biopath in development of embryos so that Z embryos fail to develop. Then only W embryos turn into eggs and the hen lays eggs that only hatch into females. This brings on a problem because now you need a rooster to fertilize her eggs. She can't lay an egg that produces a rooster.
 
Could be a neat project!! I think it could be done.

I used to be way into breeding ball pythons, and they are the same (females control the sex of the offspring). It was a known phenomenon for some individuals to produce clutches that were mostly male or mostly female. I don't know that I ever saw anyone deliberately breeding for it, though.

If you do decide to go for it, I would be thrilled to follow your progress.

As far as test hatching though, I don't think it would be worthwhile to hatch fewer than 50-100 eggs out of her. You need a fairly large sample size.

I think if I were taking this on, I'd choose an auto-sexing breed, myself. Quicker results for your test hatches. Though what you'd do with all those chicks, I have no idea!
 
There is nothing to prevent this being done using genome editing. Modify the biopath in development of embryos so that Z embryos fail to develop. Then only W embryos turn into eggs and the hen lays eggs that only hatch into females. This brings on a problem because now you need a rooster to fertilize her eggs. She can't lay an egg that produces a rooster.
Now, can your average Joe Shmoe chicken farmer do that? Not really. But it's nice to know.
 
Another idea—I saw that some believe that eggs can be sexed by shape. More pointy eggs are one sex round the other. What if you created a breed where the eggs were definitely able to do this. Sexable by color, shape, size, etc. So if you want meat birds you hatch a clutch of male eggs to hatch roos. Need layers hatch the female eggs. This would not eliminate the males all together, but make it optional.
 
White Leghorns lend themselves to Egg Shape sexing, I have done this empirical, not on a controlled way, but going by egg shape index you can select the pullets. Crossing a Silkie rooster with white leghorn and doing this led me to produce at the very least 90% females sexable at hatch(Black Skin, the males had white skin). You can further improve this by selection.
 

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