You Feather Sexing Experts... have at it! Pretty please? (Video update)

[humpbacks1962]

This is how they looked two or three days ago.... We'll see how accurate that cooler incubating temps were to favor the girls, and how accurate the feather sexing was..

Recall I started with 13 eggs, only 6 hatched. had the rest dead in shell and quitters...

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[deerman]

I dont believe theres any evidence to that at all. If it were true, all the hatcheries would be doing this in order to hatch more pullets than cockerels. Gender is determined by the egg before they are fertilized, from what I understand.

I agree 100 % one small test ...hardly proof......was just luck , nothing more than grabbing a chick ,guess the sex 50% odd you will be right.

 

[deerman]

This is how they looked two or three days ago.... We'll see how accurate that cooler incubating temps were to favor the girls, and how accurate the feather sexing was..

Recall I started with 13 eggs, only 6 hatched. had the rest dead in shell and quitters...

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Less than a 50% hatch rate, so all i can say about your lower temp. test , it only prove lower temp. give very poor hatch rate........be nice if the dead in the shell chick were vent sexed to see how many pullets were killed.

oh if i set eggs on Monday and get 70% pullets does that prove setting eggs on Monday give me more pullets ...NO.

odds will always be 50% of each sex......that over thousands of chicks, not a small number of 12

 

[humpbacks1962]

The reason why hatcheries do not use that method is obviously because there is a higher incidence of physical deformities when chicks are incubated at colder temperatures. They don't have the staff or time to fix up splayed legs, curled toes, etc., like anyone taking advantage of this method to restrain the hatchability of males for an urban, backyard flock or (like me) lacking the courage to cull the roosters.

I got a hold of some fertile eggs and decided I had nothing to lose checking out the rumors here and there about getting females when the temps are cooler. Looks like all my males died, and about 50% females is no low hatch rate, considering that is pretty close to what most people get anyway.

I am not very interested or motivated to argue here with anyone on this topic. I tried it, worked as predicted for me and given another batch of eggs, I would do it again if I can prevent the hatching of males. I will post updated photos later on, to see if indeed those sexing my chicks were right and if indeed I hatched all girls.

Plain luck? All I know is I am doing it all over again, regardless of what anyone disputes..

 

[humpbacks1962]

This is what they look like today, 3 weeks later...

 

[Minniechickmama]

Can you get a side picture of each one? I see a couple of very male looking chicks there, but I would need to see the side to really give you a good appraisal.

 

[humpbacks1962]

I'll try tomorrow. Hopefully it will be nice out and they'll go scratch in the dirt. Should be easier to photograph them if they're more distracted rather than preoccupied with the camera..

 

[Minniechickmama]

I here ya. I get a camera out there and I have to trick them to get a shot. My Hamburgs are the worst, they run everywhere and I have to take about 20 shots to get one good one. Thank goodness for digital!

 

[halo]

Would be interesting seeing more pictures. The last picture is looking 50/50 boys and girls.

 

[halo]

Hmmm.....Im thinking the feather and temperature experiment might not have worked as well as one would have thought.....