Who else has experienced a terrible ratio with a straightrun . . . .

[Lothiriel]

I got 8 chicks this past April. 6 were roosters. (Including both my Silkies...

)

 

[Stacykins]

I had awful ratios from eggs I hatched in the 'bator. So no hatcheries to blame thank goodness. Like the australorp eggs I hatched...5 total hatched, 4 roos, one girl. Mostly roos with the BCMs too. Looks like my recent Araucana hatch is turning out male too, which is a huge shame! Oh well, at least they have nice tufting/rumplessness going on.

I do think since hatcheries make more money on pullets, why wouldn't they skew the 'strait run' chicks by adding more cockerels? Since they don't guarantee on strait run, makes business sense for them to toss extra males in the bunch to get rid of them on the unknowing consumer.

I find it hilarious that most hatcheries guarantee their pullets as being 90% female, and it seems a lot of people end up getting roos after ordering just pullets. But you never hear of anyone who places a cockerel order getting a pullet in the bunch...? I mean, I got a group of white rock cockerels to raise for meat (though few survived the shipping process) and surprise! Of course they're all male, no sexing errors there. If I were to have gotten the same amount of pullets, I doubt they'd have been all girls..

 

[mississippifarmboy]

Quote:
That part is understandable from a vent sexing perspective. When you vent sex you pull out the obvious males, so you are 100% sure those are males. If it's not an obvious male it is most likely female, but occassionally you will just have an odd shaped male that looks like a female. It's sorta hard to explain without getting too graphic for a family oriented forum. I have never known any sexer to be more than 95% correct, it's just not possible. It's sort of like a male organ looks like Q and female is an O. If the "tail" on the Q is there it is for sure a male. But if it isn't there, it might be an O which is female but on a few it will be a Q with the "tail" laying up against the O and will fool you.
I know that isn't very plain, but I'm not very good at eqplaining things, I can never think of the right words.

I don't know that any hatcheries throw additional males into the straight run bin, but I guess it could happen. We ordered a straight run mixture last year and all the common breeds were about 50/50 but all the rare breeds were female. Every single one. So it does go both ways.

 

[StevenW.]

We usually get to many pullets from St. Run and have to sell them.

Now on Ducks thats a different story!

Out of 30 some ducklings last year I only got 2 Hens!

The extra drakes went to live on a big pond in the country where my grandpa lives.

 

[Drover]

i got straight run from mcmurray a couple years ago... 24 cockerels, ONE hen!! Not ordering from them again!

 

[bunrabbit41]

Wow, maybe it's beginners luck, but we ordered 24 pullets (buff orphingtons) from a very reputable hatchery and that's exactly what we ended up with . and of course the one "free" one turned out to be our EE roo! This year's trip to the local feed store turned out to be a little different story. Not only were the sexes wrong the breeds were wrong, too. I think I'd rather either order them and pay the shipping again or put one of our broody buffies to work!

 

[Rebel Rooster]

Of all of the birds we hatched last year, (2010) we got 70% roos... This year (2011) it's been 60% roos. Oh yeah! I got a 50-50 ratio from the TSC pullet bin this year! Last year I got a 60-40 ratio Roos to Pullets! That's from the TSC "Pullet" bin!!

 

[rsarns]

20 chicks from the feed store.... 1 roo! I know it was just luck, as I had no clue from the straight run bins. Of course I have hatched what I suspect are 2 more roo's...... but that's ok as 1 is a BCM and the other is a wheaten Marans. I'll decide on freeezer camp or breeders when they get old enough to see what they turn out like.

 

[CindyJeann]

When hatching from your own eggs... I have heard you can up the pullet/roo ratio if you put a lil ACV in the hens' water. It is true that lil girl sperm can survive in a slightly acid environment better than lil boy sperm.

 

[Larkspur88]

I will try that...

Lately my recent mutt chicks developed into males. So all 3 from the little family run business down the road have been boys. My coop is almost at a 50/50 male and female ratio. This is not good. They're getting along but I've seen one male getting scrappy.

So I have about 6 or 7 males and 10 hens.