You Can Sex a Chicken Egg?

[Tracy the chick]

It's fun to try and a lot of people say they get more males from pointy eggs, and more females from oval eggs. It sure doesn't hurt to have fun with this

Im going to have a go. It should be fun. Like you said it dosnt hurt to try

 

[Tam'ra of Rainbow Vortex]

Granted it was a very small sampling, but every egg I have tracked to adulthood since hearing of the possible correlation between shape and gender has matched this theory. All the roo's hatched from pointy eggs.

Again, though, super small sampling.

But I plan to track all the eggs I hatch out from now on. Why not? Even if it's only 10% more likely I'll hatch pullets from a round egg, what does it hurt? If I have too many eggs to fit in the incubator, I will leave out the pointy ones. I will see how many times the egg shape matches the gender. Like I said, even if its only 10% more likely to get one gender than another, skewing the 50-50 to a 60-40 ratio is worth the minimal effort of specifically including some shapes and excluding others.

 

[bestpractice]

Granted it was a very small sampling, but every egg I have tracked to adulthood since hearing of the possible correlation between shape and gender has matched this theory. All the roo's hatched from pointy eggs.

Again, though, super small sampling.

But I plan to track all the eggs I hatch out from now on. Why not? Even if it's only 10% more likely I'll hatch pullets from a round egg, what does it hurt? If I have too many eggs to fit in the incubator, I will leave out the pointy ones. I will see how many times the egg shape matches the gender. Like I said, even if its only 10% more likely to get one gender than another, skewing the 50-50 to a 60-40 ratio is worth the minimal effort of specifically including some shapes and excluding others.

Those are my feeling exactly. I'm glad people are having fun with it, and giving it a try. It makes hatching eggs a little more fun.

 

[Tammy N]

Egg sexing has worked for me i just found this post and i basically am being called a liar on another thread .
I gave them a challenge a man i knew who was well known for being a person who took amazing care of his animals taught me how to egg sex when i was 12. its working most of my life or when i had chickens and he only wanted males for cock fighting at the time i did not know but honestly it would of broken my heart


anyway I believe in the shape method ... i wish the hatcheries did not feel it was not cost effective Tammy

 

[lynn1961]

Interesting article from Mother Earth news.

 

[cchardwick]

Actually if you had 31 round eggs and they all turned out to be hens I don't see that you'd need any more to prove this theory. In a totally randomized system where the odds are 50:50 it would be nearly impossible to get all 31 eggs to randomly all turn one way or the other. I'm no statistician but I'm guessing the odds of that happening are nearly zero.

I'm so glad I found this thread! I just ordered an incubator and I'm going to give it a go here pretty soon and for sure I'll be chosing all round eggs! The chick sexing with the feathers is also a neat trick. I know all the secrets now!

 

[Steemroo]

Have glanced though this subject (here and other places) and noticed: (1) some people swear they've seen a strong conformation (pointy egg = cockerel, rounded egg = hen or pullet) and (2) others say these are flukes and that there's no real or broad "science" to back up this claim.

I have a feeling there might be an answer. On a different thread (sorry, forgot where) people were claiming that some hens tend to produce more hens, some more cockerels. Further, people claim that certain hens lay the one shape over other kinds.

It just might be that Person X has a hen who tends to lay lots of male eggs and tends to produce pointy eggs. Person X separates these pointy eggs and voila! Truth! The theory is confirmed.

Person Y has different hens and sees a non-conforming result (hens from pointy eggs) and is disappointed - and doesn't even post their results. They don't want to "look like a fool" for having tried such a stupid thing.

Therefore, positive or supporting "results" may accumulate while non-supporting results vanish - and we never learn of them. This sort of thing explains a lot of "theories" and why lots of good people swear by them, when overall science (studies) doesn't back up these results. Also, people are very bad at being disciplined and mentally thorough. We fall for fallacies of logic all the time (we see two things and associate or assume causality when none actually exists). We're not as smart as we think we are (only speaking for myself, of course!).

Further, some breeds may not conform at all; others might conform strongly. If you try this and post, please put more information - breed, history of the hen and rooster - and so on. People who post "wow it worked" with no further information ... this isn't helping! Put down all the info you can, or your "result" is meaningless. People have sworn, by the way, there are studies that shoot this whole thing down - I've yet to see them post the name of the study or link it, either! Oh well, sloppiness (maybe I didn't notice the link, maybe I'm sloppy)....

If you have a hen that tends to lay female eggs way more than male eggs, and you want to produce hens either to increase your flock or sell, rather than focus on egg shape - I'd segregate that hen and her eggs - and look for more like her. This idea may also be on shaky ground (wouldn't the big companies have already bred a line of female-producers if such a thing were possible - maybe they have and are keeping it secret!).

There's got to be research on another issue: extracting a tiny amount of fluid from a fertile egg and doing a hormone test to determine the sex of the embryo in the egg. It's got to be doable. But could it be done on a wide scale cheaply?

Would it be cheaper than raising all eggs and then vent sexing (and culling males)? Maybe, maybe not. Vent sexing is, what, 90%to 95% accurate or a tad more (depends on the skill of the person and other factors). That's waste right there: feeding cockerels for weeks until the mistake becomes apparent; culling potential hens. Knowing your incubator is all hens would save money and time - not raising any cockerels. And if I were a doomed cockerel I think I'd rather be destroyed before my brain formed, as a tiny cluster of cells in an egg, than culled as a day old chick. Seems more humane.

Anyway, the process would involve making a tiny hole in the right part of the egg, safely extracting some fluid without harming anything, and patching the egg (wax). The extracted fluid, assuming it would have different hormones based on sex, would then be tested - assuming a simple and cheap test (put it on treated paper and look for color) can be done. It probably can.

Maybe there are other ways.

I'll keep searching and see if I can find any research on this matter. So far I've been using the wrong key terms, or such research either doesn't exist or isn't on the Net.

 

[Diviner]

We have had considerable success using the method of a crystal, pendant or needle held over the egg on a thread or chain. If is swings round it a hen, diagonally cockrel and it does nothing if it is infertile. Good as we are breeding cream leg bars and really do not want too many cockerels!

 

[paulzie32]

I thank you all for this thread. I too have found information regarding this theory and have been wondering. I found a few other threads regarding this and am hoping it works as I really don't want all roosters from the 4 eggs I put under a hen... even 75% pullets would be ok.
http://www.chickenkeepingsecrets.com/chicken-eggs/egg-shape-as-indication-of-the-sex-of-a-chick/
http://www.avianaquamiser.com/posts/Does_chicken_egg_shape_determine_chick_sex__63__/


For those wondering why the Big commerical factories don't use this method... who says they don't already?
Those producing Broilers (for meat) could also change the sex of some of their male eggs to produce a hen that will then produce ONLY male eggs.using this method - http://www.independent.co.uk/news/a-drop-in-temperature-can-change-the-sex-of-chickens-1238516.html

just something else to add to this thread

 

[ChickenCanoe]

...

Further, some breeds may not conform at all; others might conform strongly. If you try this and post, please put more information - breed, history of the hen and rooster - and so on. People who post "wow it worked" with no further information ... this isn't helping! Put down all the info you can, or your "result" is meaningless. People have sworn, by the way, there are studies that shoot this whole thing down - I've yet to see them post the name of the study or link it, either! Oh well, sloppiness (maybe I didn't notice the link, maybe I'm sloppy)....

If you have a hen that tends to lay female eggs way more than male eggs, and you want to produce hens either to increase your flock or sell, rather than focus on egg shape - I'd segregate that hen and her eggs - and look for more like her. This idea may also be on shaky ground (wouldn't the big companies have already bred a line of female-producers if such a thing were possible - maybe they have and are keeping it secret!).
...

Good points.
Egg shape is inherited. That creates family similarities. There are seasonal variations also.

...


For those wondering why the Big commerical factories don't use this method... who says they don't already?
...

If they were, there would be no reason for half the chicks hy-line hatches to be sent to zoos as chopped up meat.