I have heard that the diet for a human can impact the gender of her baby. More the female diet but some tiny things in the male diet. Calcium overload is supposed to favor female babies while potassium in large amounts is supposed to favor male babies. Maybe the same works on chickens? Time to invent calcium treats for hens only, just to test the idea.
Oooh, I tried this. I had access to a medical school library at the time, so I avidly read any research studies I could find on influencing the gender of a baby. I already had a wonderful little boy and wanted to try for a girl. There were actually a few studies on the calcium/magnesium vs sodium/potassium diets in women (the first favoring girls, the second boys). I thought that made sense because I've always been a salt fiend! According to these studies, the diet angle is not perfect, but increases the odds dramatically.
Other studies indicated that the older the mom, the more skewed the ratio is towards having girls. I wasn't willing to wait for that, so for about 3 months before trying to conceive I cut out nearly all sodium & potassium (while still staying healthy) and heaped on the foods rich in calcium & magnesium (really, I need to eat this ice cream!). I also found studies involving the timing of conception relative to ovulation, so we did our best there too.
I had another wonderful little boy.
For the (surprising) third child, we hadn't tried anything different (didn't do any of the stuff we'd done with baby number 2), but had a little girl that time! So go figure.
But I think the take-home message of all the studies was that male sperm are faster but less hardy. So anything that makes the vagina or uterus less hospitable to sperm is likely to favor the girls.
I'm new to chickens, but I know a little about human biology and you are right about the acid (in the case of humans), the male sperm have a harder time surviving in a more acidic environment in the mother-to-be's body.
Yes, I read that too, but didn't do anything about it.
I say - no need apologize (or be embarassed) if you have a pet chicken. If that's why you have chickens (or even just one of them is a pet), that's your choice!
And you still want to raise them as naturally as possible
Good, because all I have are pets! Well, actually for eggs, but we're not going to eat ours, even after they stop laying. Nothing against it - we eat a lot of chicken! But not these ones.
But obviously, douche works as well as the rhythm method (my mom's method of BC in the late 70s, which produced two fat, happy, little babies: me and my brother lol)
Haha! Yes, my mom always used to tell me "Do you know what they call people who use the rhythm method?"
pause "Parents!"
I will agree that timing can have an impact but so can diet. The male swimmers don't survive well in acidic environments leaving more female swimmers, thus increasing the odds of a female baby. I would think the same would apply to the hen. But there are lots of debates online about the different home methods of getting a girl or a boy baby. There is no perfect way to get a girl / boy without medical intervention. Nothing will give you that 100% promise of a girl without a lab sorting the swimmers. Still the home remedies abound and can be fun to try, especially if one is trying them out on chickens where the turnover time is really quick compared to humans. I mean waiting less than a month to see if there was an impact on the hatched eggs sure beats the up to 42 weeks it can take to grow a baby.
I agree! And hopefully one isn't having a baby just to see if they can influence the gender!
...when I made my statement before I assumed one was trying to influence the gender after conception. I hear all sorts of misinformation come out of peoples mouths.
Yes, no way to influence gender after conception! Well apart from drastic measures...
I totally get what you mean that all sorts of misinformation is floating around! And it's so much easier to find nowadays, with the internet to help. Plus, if it's written, it must be true, right?
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