This is a way to tell if it is male or female before hatch and is 100%

[Servant]

This maybe hard to believer but it is 100% right all the time for me. get a needle and some thread and thread the needle. You are now on your way. Hold over the egg if it moves back and forth it is a male. I it moves around and around it is a female. This may seem crzy as it did to me when I first learn this from a old Indain who hatches his own. But I tryed it on a hatch and found it 100% correct. Try it one time and you to can set your male and females you to will become a believer!!

 

[chickiemom]

You might not believe this but here in the South we are all about old wises tales. And this was one of them. But for us (and yes I did try it) you get your wedding ring and a string. and for both of my daughters is was true. mmmmm maybe I will try it on my next set of eggs.

 

[shandea]

Yep, I've always heard to try it over your pregnant belly. I didn't try it though... wish I would have out of curiosity

 

[hencackle]

I have used a pendulum in the past but not the needle & thread approach. While it wasn't 100% accurate for me, it definitely raised the female to male ratio.

Why not make this a fun experiment among those lucky people getting ready to fill their incubators? Be sure to record your results!

Stephanie

 

[BeckyLa]

I think this would be fun to try on breed that you could tell when they hatch if they're male or female. By the time my chicks are old enough to tell sex I have no idea what egg they came from.

 

[marie_martin]

That is what I was about to ask. How do you keep up with which chick came from what egg? Do you tie a string around the leg or something?? Just curious. I have heard that about babies in bellies and I did it on my first pregnancy but it did not work. Of course the doc's were wrong on him too. Guess God changed his mind at the last minute, huh??? I have some new eggs coming tomorrow, may have to try it.

Marie

 

[hencackle]

You wouldn't have to know which egg a particular chick came from...just record your results before you begin incubating and compare them a few weeks later as your chicks mature.

I suppose you could put something in the incubator to keep the "girl eggs" on one side and the "boy eggs" on the other. After hatching, put leg bands on one gender.

Since most people want to hatch pullets not cockerels, wouldn't it be great to avoid hatching them in the first place? Right now, I have 2 cockerels that I can't find homes for (hint, hint). I should have dowsed that batch of eggs.

BTW, This string & needle method is called "dowsing". Some people use pendulums, L-rods, or forked sticks to dowse. If you want to learn more, see
http://lettertorobin.org/

Stephanie

 

[speckledhen]

Now, doesn't common sense tell you that if that worked, hatcheries would ONLY hatch as many roosters as they needed and discard the rest of the eggs? We wouldn't have dumpsters full of thousands of rooster chicks just because they happened to have the misfortune to be hatched male. Eggs hatch close to 50/50 or 60/40 in most cases, so you have those odds of being right, no matter which little divination thing you try to use. Sorry to be a bucket of cold water here.

 

[TheBrilliantHen]

Quote:
But suppose it told you eggs A and B were male, while C and D were female, and they hatched the opposite? You'd get the "right" count, but the prediction would actually have been 100% wrong.

The only good way to test this one would be to separate the eggs into separate incubators, then keep the chicks in separate brooders if they not sex linked.

 

[mlheran]

Quote:
And could you imagine them doing this to the hundreds of thousands of eggs they incubate?!

They'd cost $20 a piece just from the man-hours involved!

I'm guessing this is a case where "don't count your chickens before they hatch" could really apply.