Rooster only siring male chicks???

[MamaDragon]

Greetings All!

quick question that probably has only long answers...

I have a NHR roo... and out of 5 hatchlings it would seem that I've gotten 4 if not all 5 male chicks. Does it sometimes happen that a roo will only produce one sex or the other in offspring??

Is it just a freak roll of the dice, or does this sometimes happen? I've got 15 more eggs in the bator, due to hatch in 2 weeks.

I was planning on butchering out the cockerels at about 13 weeks, but I really need a few more hens!!

Thanks Y'all,
Kathy

 

[rooster-red]

The hens determine the sex of the chicks, not the rooster.

 

[speckledhen]

The hen determines sex of the chicks, not the rooster.

EDITED TO ADD: LEE! We said exactly the same thing at the same time. Are you following me??

 

[MamaDragon]

Is this a hint that the girls want a change in Roos???

Kathy

 

[silkiechicken]

LOL. A hen uprising?

Even if they did they can't control what genes are in their eggs.

 

[rooster-red]

Quote:
Um... great minds think alike! ?

 

[wclawrence]

....But if you hatched them in an incubator, it could be that you did something (or the incubator did something) that would have caused some of the eggs to die. Invariably, if something happens to cause part of the eggs to die (like temp fluctuation, low humidity, etc), it is always the hens that die.
Seriously.
Roosters are tougher than hens, even at such a young age, and something may have killed all your female embyos, while letting the males live, although they would have come pretty close themselves.
Just a thought.

 

[fancyfowl4ever]

Only a 1 degree change in temp can kill off any female embryos. I have noticed you hatch a lot more hens if your incubation temp lies at 98.9 - 99.5, then I loose a lot less eggs during incubation, but if my temp goes over 100.3 over the term of the incubation I loose around half of the eggs and the ones that do make it to hatching usually turn out male(there are 1 or 2 tough girls sometimes).

Its not that temp determines gender but that females are much more prone to die off at higher incubation temps.

 

[Smoky73]

I know that some of my hens are certainly more prone genetically to having female chicks. I have been hatching mostly females in my Dutch flock for years. So far this year, the same holds true for my white silkies oddly enough.

Maybe its my bators LOL.

I hatched only 3 RIR's from a friends eggs, all three girls.

6 mixed breed Millie Dutch from another friends eggs- 5 of 6 were girls

2 Pure Millie Dutch from same friend, both girls- hers she hatched- all boys LOL.

 

[hinkjc]

I'm going to say that your test sample is way too small to put any focus on any specific potential issue. You need to hatch at least 100 eggs and see what the percentage is then.

Not that I'm encouraging lotsa hatching...

Jody