Running incubator higher temp to get pullets?

[Agape Builder]

Today is day 21-22 for me. Started out with what I thought were 39 good eggs. 30 hatched yesterday. Two died after pipping yesterday. Seven more are in the incubator now, but four seem to only be partially developed, and three just have not made a noise although they seem fully developed.

 

[frogs n chickens]

Agape builder, as a newbie sexing chickens I would be very interested to know if your 30 pullets out of 30 chicks prediction comes true, as even the professionally employed chicken sexers are only right around 90% of the time. If you are, then I do believe you could have a new vocation as a chicken sexer.
Ya gotta wonder about peoples reaction when they ask you what you do for a living.

 

[racuda]

Agape Builder, IF external factors can influence gender, then one would expect a predisposition toward one sex or another, say a higher percentage of pullets, not 100%.

 

[speckledhen]

I just hatched out 30 Plymouth Barred Rock chicks just yesterday. If wing feather sexing is reliable at all on one day old chicks, then I have 30 pullets out of 30 chicks hatched yesterday. Can anyone tell me what the odds of that happening are unless there was a determining factor for sex that could be contributed after the egg was laid and fertilized?

Feather sexing does not work unless they are specifically bred for that. And BRs are easy to sex anyway by color. Don't need feather sexing at all. I'm betting you have some boys in that group.
Higher temps do not affect the sex in avians. Sex is determined by the hen, not the rooster, unlike mammals.​

 

[Chicks_N_Horses]

Marans can be stinkers to hatch for sure. I don't think that is true though because my bator has been running at 102 for the past few hatches and I have about an even number of roos and hens out of them. I think high temps just cause chicks to hatch earlier than 21 days, not be females. That is a gator thing

 

[ZZsBabiez]

I have read that pullet embryos are more sensitive to temp changes and either don't develop or don't hatch as a result.. hence the reason all my first hatches were mostly roos.. I believe a steady temp will help roo to pullet ratio... (we all strive for perfect temps..I'm sure!)

I can't speak for anyone else.. but I dropped the temp in my forced air LG to 98.5 to 99 or as close as a Styrofoam can get.. and my pullet to roo ratio has greatly improved. Not enough to make big claims to fame.. but MUCH better.. My last hatch of Seramas was 1 roo 3 pullets..
I have two more hatches yet to be determined..

I'm not hatching home grown, so my percentages weren't that great.. The eggs I hatch are shipped.. I have significantly less roos now..

So maby the "temp changes" they were speaking of were higher temps? I don't know.

Luck? Coincidence? Whatever.. it's working for me!

Edited to add.........

I understand that my hatches have improved overall.. not just with the ratio.. at least now I don't just hatch a few roos.

 

[Sunny Side Up]

Only certain breeds of chicks can be sexed by wing-feather patterns, I'm not sure if BR are one of those. I think White Leghorns can be feather sexed at hatch, which is handy so the hatcheries/egg farmers can identify the laying pullets and separate them from the little cockerel chicks. I've seen videos of hatcheries where they have thousands of yellow chicks on conveyer belts and workers are busy feather sexing them, sending each down its own gender-specific chute.

I've tried to feather sex hatchlings at my place, and found it inaccurate, found what seemed to be 100% pullets by feather patterns. Did you do anything different with your incubator conditions for this hatch?

I'm unfamiliar with the science, but I know that businesses want to make as much profit as possible. IF there were such a simple way to insure more pullets per hatch, surely one of these big commercial hatcheries would have discovered it & be using it by now.

 

[speckledhen]

If there is a temp spike and some embryos die, they are often the pullets who die. Seems the males survive that better for some reason.

 

[Feathered Wings]

How did you know the embryos that died were pullets?
How do you sex a embryo?

 

[speckledhen]

I don't personally know that, but have read it in some very good literature, written by the folks who do know.