Roosters to hens ratio

[Ridgerunner]

Notice the date on that article, 1997. Twenty-two years ago. Do you really think that if there were anything to it this would be standard practice in the commercial chicken industry by now? Some things just fail the common sense test.

Certain myths just won't go away. You really cannot feather-sex all chicks the day they are hatched. You cannot control the sex of the chicks by whether the egg is rounded or pointy. You cannot control the sex of the chick by the temperature of incubation. But these myths won't die.

 

[Shadrach]

Notice the date on that article, 1997. Twenty-two years ago. Do you really think that if there were anything to it this would be standard practice in the commercial chicken industry by now? Some things just fail the common sense test.

Certain myths just won't go away. You really cannot feather-sex all chicks the day they are hatched. You cannot control the sex of the chicks by whether the egg is rounded or pointy. You cannot control the sex of the chick by the temperature of incubation. But these myths won't die.

Well, you know, something does determine the sex of the chicks.
Some people will tell you God does it, others will tell you it's pure chance, others will tell you they don't know and are looking into it.
They are still looking into it. I'm with that lot.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Science has that answer, it's the genetics the hen gives the egg before it is fertilized. So the study should take that into account and look at what happens inside the hen to see if they can affect that. If you look at anything after that, well have you heard the phrase about locking the barn door after the horse is stolen?

Another possible approach would be to look at testing the egg after it is laid to determine sex. That way you would know which ones to incubate and you could sell the other eggs to a bakery or dog food company. It would have to be really inexpensive and totally automated for the volume they would need, but maybe DNA or some type of chemical test. I believe they are looking into something like this, I believe there is supposed to be some chemical difference in fluids once the embryo starts developing, which it does even before the egg is laid. But these commercial hatcheries may hatch 1,000,000 chicks a week. That's the scale they are looking at to make it commercial.

I'm all for studies but I think they should be based on science.

 

[Ridgerunner]

@Shadrach This is from 2017, a little more up to date.

https://www.chemistryworld.com/news/spectroscopy-allows-in-egg-chicken-sexing-/2500274.article

 

[Skippersnh]

i have 4 roosters and 5 hens and they are all healthy and happy it really depends on space youve gotten alot of bad advice so far from what ive read

 

[jolenesdad]

This study is fairly fascinating... and covers most of what has been discussed here. I also found the breakdown of feed conversion for dual purpose layers and meat birds to be interesting.

https://academic.oup.com/ps/article/97/3/749/4780252

just saw @Ridgerunner’s post that highlights the conclusions in this article that spectroscopy is the potential future of sexing in shell.

 

[Trevorusn]

Upstate new York 3 years ago or so they arrested 42 Hispanic men in our neighbor's (2 farms up the road) barn for cockfighting and gambling. The poor amish man who needed to finish paying for his new barn sent his daughter to the neighbor's to call the cops when he found out what they were using the barn for after renting it. All 42 mug shots were in the paper along with a big ol' write-up. Enanias was in trouble with the elders I bet, for letting outsiders in.

But what breeds were being fought, that is the point. Does cockfighting go on here?? Certainly does. But are they using, say, a Cochin roo vs an Aseel, Cubalaya or Shamo??? Not likely.

 

[Shadrach]

@Shadrach This is from 2017, a little more up to date.

https://www.chemistryworld.com/news/spectroscopy-allows-in-egg-chicken-sexing-/2500274.article

Thanks for the link.
I've been reading a bit about this and and the genetic research on The Poultry Site and the journal Nature.

 

[Manhen]

But what breeds were being fought, that is the point. Does cockfighting go on here?? Certainly does. But are they using, say, a Cochin roo vs an Aseel, Cubalaya or Shamo??? Not likely.

i dont know. Guy at the pet store here grew up with a free flock with 60 roos. He said its easy to win. You just throw another bird in the ring. He was about 20 years old. Go figure.

 

[Manhen]

This is getting to bad karma here.