Sexing eggs!

[CherriesBrood]

Last year I was a bad judge of roos and hens. I almost gave away 3 hens because I thought they were roos. lucky for me I didn't have takers. Funny because I have been raising chickens for 43 years.

No these ones I'm sure, they have big red combs and waddles and like to play cock fight with each other. They are funny.

 

[ChickNanny13]

You all got me so interested in this theory....Now I'm tempted getting an incubator & getting some fertile eggs just to test the results. I'm waiting for Spring, all your results! It's like how we guess (human) pregnancy; round & wide = girl, pointy/out front = boy; worked for guessing my pregnancies, sisters, daughter & daughter in law. All in fun, subscribing just to see all your results.

 

[WVduckchick]

Good work Chapin. In the spring, we'll start a thread dealing specifically with this experiment. Hope we can get it set up in survey form with specific parameters. So hang on to your data, get it written down someplace, and save it for the thread!

WV, hope you do eggtopsies. I'd love to see what happened to those eggies. Malposition? vs other issues... Were they likely from the same hen???

Sorry I never answered this Lazy! I finally opened the eggs, and I think the mutts were just too big and couldn't pip. I had mostly bantams (plus ducks) in the bator with them, so I adjusted humidity toward them and they all did great! Just the mutts didn't. Bad news is those others were not chosen by roundness. I set what I had, and they were all very similar to each other in shape.

I hatched them for someone else, and they are almost 4 weeks old now, so I will check with her and see if she knows sex of them yet, at least we can check on the one pointed egg that did hatch lol

I had a hatch that was over heated and hatched out 4 boys, 1 girl. Is there a chance your incubator is reading off?
Boys supposedly live through higher temperatures better. Girls live through lower temperatures better.

Nah, see above. Just not a good mixed incubation.

 

[lazy gardener]

Sorry I never answered this Lazy! I finally opened the eggs, and I think the mutts were just too big and couldn't pip. I had mostly bantams (plus ducks) in the bator with them, so I adjusted humidity toward them and they all did great! Just the mutts didn't. Bad news is those others were not chosen by roundness. I set what I had, and they were all very similar to each other in shape.

I hatched them for someone else, and they are almost 4 weeks old now, so I will check with her and see if she knows sex of them yet, at least we can check on the one pointed egg that did hatch lol



Nah, see above. Just not a good mixed incubation.

This is what happened when I did my nutrition end of the experiment last spring. IMO, the extra vitamins made the chicks too big, so I had a poorer than usual hatch, and had to do several assists.

 

[CherriesBrood]

Would anyone like them?

 

[gimmie birdies]

I have some chicken who lay a pointier egg, and some that lay a rounder egg, I've hatched out a really round egg before it was male.

This time I had 2 quitters, I popped open the quit eggs and looked at my notes. Blue green oval shaped egg, I guessed female by shape, her comb looked female... white egg much skinnier was male by comb shape. and they matched my notes guess.

 

[gimmie birdies]

no comb, I am calling her sparkle, egg guess was girl.

 

[Wendy High]

I am in. Just set over a dozen hoping for pullets. Will post update. Some if my eggs are older than 7 days. Will see.

 

[lazy gardener]

I have some chicken who lay a pointier egg, and some that lay a rounder egg, I've hatched out a really round egg before it was male.

This time I had 2 quitters, I popped open the quit eggs and looked at my notes. Blue green oval shaped egg, I guessed female by shape, her comb looked female... white egg much skinnier was male by comb shape. and they matched my notes guess.

Hard to tell at hatch what they are. Also, We're looking for a trend here, not necessarily saying that all round eggs are female, or all pointy eggs are male. If you can tell which bird is laying the really pointy eggs, and separate all of hers into a single group... then choose the roundest ones for one pile and the most pointed ones for an other pile, set both piles and band chicks as they hatch, that would add some interesting data to the experiment.

 

[gimmie birdies]

When chicks hatch the males will have a rush of hormones causing the comb to be pronounced then the combs go down a bit later and it is harder to tell.