The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Poultry & Waterfowl => Topic started by: AnnaB on June 13, 2015, 05:56:05 pm
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Put 13 eggs in the incubator 3 weeks ago. 12 were growing when I candled them. So far 7 have hatched, 1 more has a pip, will be patient for another day with the rest. Out of the 7 no more than 2 are hens I think. They are Dorkings so the head markings are different between the sexes. Hope some more hatch and are girls. Statistics mean nothing in this house.
Since I started hatching, including the current batch, totals are 28 cockerels and 5 hens !!!
??? :rant:
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Could this be a temperature or humidity thing?
About 18 years ago we hatched a dozen or so call duck eggs in an incubator and they were pretty much all male. We left the ducks sit their own eggs after that and they hatched mainly females which evened up the numbers. Did the ducks hatch females on purpose?
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I think its just bad luck.
I recently hatched 6 blue laced Wyandotte eggs as Ive always wanted a couple of BLW hens. I knew Blue Laced don't breed true to type but I had a 50% chance of Blue Laced. Ive ended up with 3 males and 3 females but the only Blues are male!! Just bad luck
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Could this be a temperature or humidity thing?
With reptiles it makes a small difference (according to our vet who specialises in exotics).
AnnaB, keep on going and soon the numbers will reverse! We might have just hatched 20-22 cockerels out of 26 eggs so you're not alone :)
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Next time I speak to my brother I'll ask him about temp and humidity and whether it has an influence on sex: he used to be production manager of the largest chick hatchery in Europe.
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The thing I have found to make a difference is egg shape. Nice big, round eggs means more hens. Pointy eggs means more cockerels. They say that you get more cockerels from young hens but I have concluded that it's because they lay smaller, more pointy eggs.
This year I have been really picky in only setting the roundest eggs and have had way more females.
Anyone else found this?
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Surely in poultry as in other species the sex of the youngsters is determined by the male. May be better off changing your cockerel and see if that makes a difference.
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Surely in poultry as in other species the sex of the youngsters is determined by the male. May be better off changing your cockerel and see if that makes a difference.
Nope that's totally wrong sorry! Birds have ZW chromosomes rather than XY. In birds hens have ZW whereas males have ZZ, so it's the hen which determines the sex of the offspring.
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Well, I never knew that! I've been keeping poultry all my life and am still learning. I currently have 3 chicks just off heat all from the same bird, she was sitting when the fox got her. Will these all be one sex would you suppose?
I usually incubate eggs from several birds and get a about half and half.
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Duh!! :dunce: :dunce: Just realised the answer to my own question!!
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:D
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Our first hatch of Blue Laced Wyandottes was one pullet and 7 cockerels. Our second hatch was 2 cockerels and 8 pullets. In the end out of 46 we had 22 pullets and 24 cockerels. I was told statistically there are 50-55% cockerels in a hatch, so 45-50% pullets. I think you've just had bad luck AnnaB.
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So I ended up with 8 chicks out of 13 eggs. One was a dud from candling early. Broke the other 4 today and all had pretty mature chicks that had failed to hatch. Last year the forum seemed to think too much humidity was bad so these have run pretty dry till the last few days when I filled the 2 channels in the Brinsea incubator. Why do you think they didn't hatch ?
I think I've got 4 of each in the end so not too bad.
Now just have to decide what to do with yet more cockerels .........
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Regarding the chicks that didn't hatch: it depends on what they looked like when you opened up the shell. Google 'chick shrink wrapped' photographs and see if they look the same.
During the cooler days recently, if the humidity outside wasn't high enough it wouldn't have been in the incubator either. I have found that incubating dry with the Brinsea in my house leads to disaster, but it entirely depends on your environment.
Hope the 8 are all doing well :)
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There you are....they were just teasing you!
Sorry about your 4 deaths though
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No not shrink wrapped, moist enough, didn't seem over hydrated and swollen ....just dead.
1 probably dead a few days still had some yolk in sac, others looked like they should have hatched. Looked just like they do straight after hatching.
Did try to work out whether they were male or female but difficult before they dry out and go fluffy because the head markings look the same.
Keep trying I guess
Will give incubator a good scrub in case infection was a problem