Question for the hatching egg pros.....

[kbell]

I was told yesterday that regulating the temp in the incubator the last few days would create more hens.

Whats your take on this? Just curious, I had never really heard it before. Thanks, Kim in GA

 

[Gypsy07]

This is total myth. Sex is set at conception, i.e. before the egg is incubated or even actually laid.

Regulating the temp in the incubator CAN however affect what percentage of each sex will survive the incubation process.

I can't remember which it is, but temps higher than 99.5 will kill more males than females, or the other way round, and ditto in reverse with temps lower than 99.5. But at best it would probably give you something like a 60:40 ratio rather than a 50:50 one, and that would only be overall, out of many hundreds or thousands of eggs hatched, and not guaranteed for any one hatch.

 

[cmom]

Quote:
This is a myth actually temps over I think 102 will kill off the males and if it runs consistently low then the females die. (Don't remember the temp).

The sex ratio of Reptiles is known to be strongly influenced by temperature. If the eggs are kept at 86F the hatchlings are all female and at 91.5F they are all male.

 

[BairleaFarm]

makes me want to kick the temps up a degree.

 

[idispatch4911]

Quote:
Me too! Is that bad? HA HA HA!

 

[TownhouseSeramas]

Quote:
I was thinking about that to. I have to many males to begin with.