Nutrition and gender, and inducing broodiness

[AmyLynn2374]

Interesting. My best ever hatch was the last one. I set 25 eggs. 23 went to lock down. Hatched 22. These eggs were incubated horizontally until lock down, and I then put them upright in egg cartons. The horizontal decision was a "just because" decision, b/c I wasn't pleased with the stats of last hatch. The egg carton, upright lock down was b/c the eggs hadn't lost enough mass due to frequent rainy days which kept my humidity up, thus air cells were smaller than I wanted to see. These studies go to show that the "we do it this way because that's just the way it's done" mentality is worth challenging. I also hatch in a forced air at 100 degrees. IMO that extra 1/2 degree makes all the difference in the world with my hatches. I typically get one or two hatches late day 20, most on day 21, with a lot of break out right around the "hour of set" and a few late bloomers which are often dry, sticky, or malpositioned on day 23. I assist those as needed with a "hot tub hatch", and typically can't tell which ones they were 24 hours later.

Perhaps I should do a set next spring at 99.5 and see if that changes my percentages. However, if you are able to bring a high percentage of your lock down eggs to hatch, and still end up with a high percentage of females by doing egg shape selection, the temp shouldn't matter b/c you won't be loosing those males to temp issues. Also, IMO, certain hens are more apt to produce female offspring. Time for a study to select those females, and then do a study specifically on their eggs to: compare their shape to the shape of the eggs of their flock mates (specifically to the shape of eggs of a female who more often produces male offspring) Then, take the former female, and do an egg shape study based only on her eggs. Do the same with the latter female. Then, it may be time to work on culling the latter hens from the flock, if they can be identified.

I agree. People are afraid to strike out on their own and try new things because of the scare of "absolute certainties" that will happen that in fact are not certainties. I disagree with many things that the "experts" tout as fact and until my hatches prove otherwise, I will argue against them.

I too was wondering if hens (since they determine sex) are more inclined to lay a majority of one sex thus providing the fact that (if there is anything to egg shape and sex) shape of egg is consistant to the hen. It'd be interesting to see if hen A lays predominately rounder eggs and you take 6 of those eggs and hatch them out along with 6 from hen B who lays more pointed eggs, will hen A's eggs produce girls while hen B's eggs produce boys?? If so then it would be a breakthrough to laying eggs from a hen that produces majority of pullets.

 

[Beekissed]

I have birds that definitely keep their same egg shape at all times and down through the years, so that would be how I would have to do this experiment as well. So far I've noticed~with just two hens with extreme examples of the round and pointy shapes~that the round produced 100% female and the long and pointy eggs produced 99% males. One hen with round eggs~but not as round as the aforementioned~gave me 3 males, 2 females, so her eggs would have to be sorted between really round and those with some level of oval shape in order to find out if hers held male or female in those shapes.

 

[lazy gardener]

I agree. People are afraid to strike out on their own and try new things because of the scare of "absolute certainties" that will happen that in fact are not certainties. I disagree with many things that the "experts" tout as fact and until my hatches prove otherwise, I will argue against them.

I too was wondering if hens (since they determine sex) are more inclined to lay a majority of one sex thus providing the fact that (if there is anything to egg shape and sex) shape of egg is consistant to the hen. It'd be interesting to see if hen A lays predominately rounder eggs and you take 6 of those eggs and hatch them out along with 6 from hen B who lays more pointed eggs, will hen A's eggs produce girls while hen B's eggs produce boys?? If so then it would be a breakthrough to laying eggs from a hen that produces majority of pullets.

When I divided my eggs out, I set them into 2 piles initially. Round and pointy. Then, I went back to the round pile, and eliminated more of the "not so round". I also eliminated the ones that were proportionately larger than average. If I had eggs from one hen that could be definitely traced to that one hen, I then lined all of her eggs up, and picked the roundest of them all. I would love to see others carry on with this experiment in the spring. If you have your own eggs, it doesn't cost a thing to do. It would be great if someone had the right flock configuration to do a sex linked set. Then you'd have instant gratification for your trial.

 

[lazy gardener]

Bee, did you cull the hen that produced a lot of roos? I'd definitely want to be selecting the daughters of the hen that produced so many pullets for my future flock.

 

[Beekissed]

If I'm still here in the spring, I'm game! I'll try to sort like you have done and see what pops out of those eggs.

 

[lazy gardener]

Looking forward to it... If I'm still here as well!!!

 

[AmyLynn2374]

When I divided my eggs out, I set them into 2 piles initially. Round and pointy. Then, I went back to the round pile, and eliminated more of the "not so round". I also eliminated the ones that were proportionately larger than average. If I had eggs from one hen that could be definitely traced to that one hen, I then lined all of her eggs up, and picked the roundest of them all. I would love to see others carry on with this experiment in the spring. If you have your own eggs, it doesn't cost a thing to do. It would be great if someone had the right flock configuration to do a sex linked set. Then you'd have instant gratification for your trial.

Right!

Looking forward to it... If I'm still here as well!!!

I'm tempted to pull an SC on you! Not too many people agree with my bucking the system so you gotta stay around for backup!! lol

 

[lazy gardener]

Amy, Bee and my reference to "still here" is related to current fulfillment of prophecy, and wind down of signs of the times as related to scripture. I'll be here on BYC as long as I'm still here.

 

[AmyLynn2374]

Amy, Bee and my reference to "still here" is related to current fulfillment of prophecy, and wind down of signs of the times as related to scripture. I'll be here on BYC as long as I'm still here.

OK, that's kosher.

But we haven't had 7 years of peace in the middle east yet, so we got time, right???

 

[Beekissed]

Not for us. We'll be leaving before that proposed 7 yrs of supposed peace...any time.

And I thank the good Lord for it!