Why all roosters

[Roton]

My last batch to come out of the bator ended up being 90o/o roosters! Does the temp. have anything to do with it as we had some serious heat up here, this is probably a stupid question. Out of 26 only 5 were hens. Can anybody shed some light on this please?

 

[rosaline]

thats alot of roo's.

 

[country freedom]

In mammals, the males determine the sex of the babies - in birds, the females determine the sex of the babies.

 

[mstricer]

Quote:
I know the feeling my first hatch, luckly I only did 5 eggs turned out to be at least 3 roos and possible 1 hen. (#5 infertile), It was a test run and will be dog food on the 29th. (Boy does that sound unfeeling but they need to eat too) I feel bad for you and 26 roo's its going to get really noisey at your house

 

[MuranoFarms]

Just luck.

Sorry.

 

[MuranoFarms]

I should further that comment by saying: I wish I could tell you how to hatch all hens. There are tons of threads on here debating that and it just comes down to luck. Temp too high or too low will affect your hatch, but not the sex of the birds.

 

[FisherMOM]

that is the luck that I have too!
Over the past 2 years, we have hatched out 15 eggs and 10 were roosters!
Crazy stuff! If I was into eating my birds, it wouldnt matter really... but so far I cannot "dispatch" them.

 

[zaylinda]

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=280909

Here's a thread discussing various ways to increase your percentage of hens.

General consensus: it just comes down to luck.

 

[speckledhen]

Get hens who lean toward female chicks is all I can tell you. If I want pullets, I hatch Ivy's eggs. If I want cockerels, I hatch Lexie's eggs.

Temp during incubation doesn't determine the sex of the chick, though some have said that males tend to survive temperature spikes better, so more males hatch if you have incubation troubles like that. Not sure if that is true or not.

 

[Suechick]

I heard that hen embryos are more likely to die/quit in high temperatures. That may be part due to the temp at the time of fertilization and it may be part due to the temp during incubation. That question would make a good research project for someone wanting to do a science fair... Anyway, maybe a lower incubation temp would help, like say 98 - 100 rather than 99.5 - 103, obviously you can't control the temp at the time of fertilization but it would be interesting if there are more hens from winter eggs and more roosters from mid summer eggs...

Anyone?