Setting Eggs Sept. 24th-Oct. 4th-Last Hatch of the Year. Anyone care to join me?

[Roxannemc]

To put a technical turn on it I think to hatch pullets as the article says as a reliable study you would also have to hatch out the pointed eggs also to see how many were roos.Maybe that persons hen was throwing mostly pullets and the pointy were pullets too.

 

[LakeBird]

Does the temperature in the incubator determine the sex of a chicken? Last spring we incubated some eggs and ended up with a bunch of roosters. We turned the temperature down to about 99°F and ended up with mostly hens and a few roosters.
The effect of temperature on the sex of the offspring is related to reptile eggs (such as alligators) and not for birds.
The sex of a bird is determined genetically and is set before the egg is even laid. Unlike mammals, however, it is the female bird that determines the sex of the offspring and not the male. In mammals the male is heterozygous (XY) and the female homozygous (XX) so that the male is the only parent with the Y gene which will result in a male offspring. In birds the female is heterozygous (ZW) and the male is homozygous (ZZ) so that the female determines the sex of the offspring.
While the sex of the chick is determined before the egg is laid, research has shown that male and female embryos may differ in their sensitivity to suboptimal conditions during embryo development. As a result, the ratio of males and females that actually hatch can vary depending on incubation conditions. This is because the ratio of males and females that do not hatch is affected not because the sex of the embryos was changed by the temperature (as happens with some reptiles).

Thanks for sharing lynn! Love learning something new here everyday

 

[LakeBird]

Don't count your chickens before they're hatched," the old saving goes. True, you can't be sure any given egg will produce a live chick, but you can make a pretty good guess at the hypothetical bird's sex before the smallest crack appears in its shell. When you're buying fertilized chicken eggs or choosing which eggs to hatch from your own flock, there's just one simple method to keep in mind. It's quick, easy, works for all breeds and is so reliable that we raised 23 pullets from 23 carefully chosen eggs!
Here's the secret: If you want your brood to be mostly female, select and incubate only the most nearly oval eggs. Those with a noticeably pointed end produce cockerels. Many of the chicks-to-be you examine, of course (especially the first time you try this idea), will fall into an indeterminate range, so pick only the most clearly oval shapes if you want to hatch future layers.

Commercial breeders cull and hatch their "female" eggs because pullets bring a higher price, Therefore, a fertile batch of "straight-run" eggs bought from a big dealer is likely to contain mostly indeterminate and pointed discards and give you considerably less than a 50/50 chance of hatching female chicks. To improve the odds, choose from your own hens' layings or ask a local chicken raiser to save his most obviously oval finds for you.

Sound hard to believe? The first time I heard of this trick, I thought someone was pulling my only-recently-rural leg. But try it, it works!


Read more: http://www.motherearthnews.com/sustainable-farming/buying-fertilized-chicken-eggs-zmaz74zhol.aspx#ixzz28EoT9fl9

Hope this works. My black orpington eggs were so round...I wan't exactly sure where end to set down in the trays!

 

[Brookhavens]

I remember reading somewhere that temperature does not determine the sex but could have an effect on what hatches out. It said something like if you ran your incubator at say 100.5 more females/males (can't remember which one) would hatch and if you ran the temp lower say 99 you would get more of the opposite sex. I will try and find the article and post the link.

 

[Texasmja]

Here's the secret: If you want your brood to be mostly female, select and incubate only the most nearly oval eggs. Those with a noticeably pointed end produce cockerels. Many of the chicks-to-be you examine, of course (especially the first time you try this idea), will fall into an indeterminate range, so pick only the most clearly oval shapes if you want to hatch future layers.

If this is true...dang it! I have 4 pointy out of 6 SLW eggs

 

[Roxanneinla]

I hate dealing with shipped eggs too. I keep searching for local (even a few hours away) and can't find what I'm looking for so shipped it has to be. I was talking to a postal employee last week when I picked up my eggs and she told me to consider this: Priority packages can weigh up to 70 lbs. So when your package is on the conveyor belt and drops into the bin a package weighing 70 lbs. could be the next one in line and fall on top of your box. After picturing this scenario I am amazed that any of the eggs hatch.

Ya i am still amazed too cause i use to work at the post office as a distribution clerk and just wow!! You won't believe what kinds of stuff get shipped in the mail and what this stuff goes through to get to your mail box. Still miss hearing all the peeps from the baby chicks in the mail though. But not so much of a loud crowing roosters.

 

[Roxanneinla]

Hey Roxanneinla....Did you get your eggs yet?

sigh...no and not responding to emails!!! If they don't show up this morning i am making quite a few phone calls!!

 

[Brookhavens]

Here's the secret: If you want your brood to be mostly female, select and incubate only the most nearly oval eggs. Those with a noticeably pointed end produce cockerels. Many of the chicks-to-be you examine, of course (especially the first time you try this idea), will fall into an indeterminate range, so pick only the most clearly oval shapes if you want to hatch future layers.

On our next candling we should all write down the shape of each egg and then what they end up being in a couple of months (unless you have sexlinks and you can tell at hatch what they are.) There are enough of us on this thread that we could compare results. I just picked up my 24 silkie eggs from the post office, so with these 24 and the 15 in the bator now, I am going to try this "egg shape gender" thing and see if it is really works.

 

[Texasmja]

On our next candling we should all write down the shape of each egg and then what they end up being in a couple of months (unless you have sexlinks and you can tell at hatch what they are.) There are enough of us on this thread that we could compare results. I just picked up my 24 silkie eggs from the post office, so with these 24 and the 15 in the bator now, I am going to try this "egg shape gender" thing and see if it is really works.

I am in. I can't wait to see how the results come out.

Wishing you the best of luck with the new eggs!

 

[lynn1961]

If this is true...dang it! I have 4 pointy out of 6 SLW eggs

Lol, know what you mean, I tried to choose the more rounded eggs, these are different chickens than I had last fall, am considering doing a small hatch of just the pointy eggs to compare with the rounded eggs, also at a different temp. My DH may wring my neck if he finds all 3 incubators going, love chicken math, says the woman that had 80 something chickens and 9 turkeys until the most recent chicken/turkey sale off. Now we are down to 20 layers and the Roo's we kept for them.