Rooster producing only male offspring?

[Rinnley]

Our roo has sired a number of chicks, while most were killed on mass by a viscous cat, the all appeared to be developing into roo's. Since then more have hatched, 3 out of four were boys and the "hen" is developing a worrisome tail. I know is possible for a human man to only make XX children. Is it possible for a roo to sire only male offspring? He is a dominique/java mating with mostly malay/java hens.

 

[TheKindaFarmGal]

Avian sex chromosomes are different than people and other mammals. The ovum determines the sex of the chick. Roosters are ZZ and hens are ZW. So it is not your rooster's fault you are getting a lot of cockerels.

EDIT: wrote a word wrong.

 

[Rinnley]

Avian sex chromosomes are different than people and other males. The ovum determines the sex of the chick. Roosters are ZZ and hens are ZW. So it is not your rooster's fault you are getting a lot of cockerels.

That makes so much sense, the little i had seen about chicken genes seemed to be totally backwards, almost as thought the females had the "xy" or mismatched chromosome. ZW, makes everything clear. Perhaps we will try hatching more of our australorps eggs under the terminally broody hens. Thanks so much!

 

[GingersHuman]

Thanks for the info! I wondered how it worked!

 

[donrae]

You can post pics of them on the What Breed or Gender section to confirm genders if you like.