Hatch Those Eggs

[gayle]

www.backyardpoultrymag.com/issues/7/7-1/hatch_those_eggs.html

Hatch Those Eggs
By Don Schrider
Virginia

Has anyone read this article by Don Schrider
It is really good.
Lots of good information from different breeders.
Thumbs up on this article.

[gayle]

www.backyardpoultrymag.com/issues/7/7-1/hatch_those_eggs.html

Generally still air incubators run at 101°F and forced air at 99.5°F. Run your temp a little low and the hatches will be delayed, run it too high and the hatches come early. Bob Hawes of Maine has noted that hatchability is reduced by 4% and hatch is delayed by half-an-hour per day beyond four that eggs are saved. My neighbor, Paul Seymour of Virginia, has observed that lowering the temperature by half a degree results in more females and raising it half a degree results in more males. The jury is out on exactly how this works, but it seems that the lower temperature results in fewer of the male chicks hatching, and just the opposite for the higher temperature

Has anyone ever observed this before. I have been told this works by different breeders. Low temp more females, slightly higher temp more males. Yes the question is how does this Work?

[gayle]

www.backyardpoultrymag.com/issues/7/7-1/hatch_those_eggs.html

Monroe Babcock, originator of the Babcock B2000 industrial Leghorn, observed that in cases were fertile males mated with fertile females, but that the eggs had low fertility, the fault lay not with the male but with the female; it seems that the hen's ability to keep the semen viable was the contributing factor. Walter Hogan observed that the shape of the pelvic bones made a difference in fertility — on some birds the bones curve inward toward each other, this being not desirable. Mr. Hogan noted that fertility was higher on birds with straight pelvic bones and that males, whose bones turn in almost like horns, were not very fertile with hens with nice, straight bones.

I find this very interesting that the shape of the pelvic bone can determine fetility.

this would go along with determining the vent shape and the width of the pelvic area.

[bamachicken]

If low temps mean more pullets then I am about to turn the temp down.

[gayle]

Julie

I've heard several breeders claim this works but I have never tried this myself. Is there something to this, I don't know for sure. Can regulating the temp of the incubator determine the ratio of females to males??

[gayle]

wiki.answers.com/Q/Can_the_incubation_temperature_determine_which_sex_a_hens_egg_will_produce

Can the incubation temperature determine which sex a hens egg will produce?

Yes and No. The incubation temperature does effect the gender ratio of the hatch in so much as the males will have a better chance of survival when the temperature in the incubator goes beyond the ideal 100.5 F. As for the temperature actually making a difference in the gender, NO the gender is determined within hours of laying and is determined by the mothers initial allocation of embryonic hormones although more studies are currently being done to verify this.

The answer is YES! Actually that second paragraph is not entirely correct. According to the Independent, a news source in the UK, a drop in temperature can cause more male chicks to be born. See Related Links.

[gayle]

I don't know should we believe this??


www.independent.co.uk/news/a-drop-in-temperature-can-change-the-sex-of-chickens-1238516.html

A drop in temperature can change the sex of chickens

A brief, chilly spell can change the sex of chickens in the egg, the festival learnt yesterday. The finding, which has been patented, could eventually lead to big changes in the poultry industry, writes Nicholas Schoon.
If the temperature is dropped by a few degrees for three days during the embryological development of a freshly laid egg, some chickens which should hatch out male instead become female.
They have the genes and chromosomes for maleness but they are fully functional females able to lay fertile eggs. If they are then crossed with normal males, the resulting chicks are all male, said Professor Mark Ferguson of the University of Manchester.
This is what interests the poultry industry.All the female chicks which hatch from the breeding stock which provides the broiler chickens we eat are destroyed after hatching. Only the males put on enough meat, at sufficient speed, to make them economically viable. So there could be large savings if the breeding stock could be made to produce only males.
The chilling technique only changes the sex of 10 per cent of males into females, although if these birds are then crossed with normal males an all-male brood results.
Professor Ferguson believes the cooling can only work its effect on a minority of chicks which are "near the border line" of the male-female spectrum. The cooling is thought to work by slowing down the operation of enzymes involved in sex determination.
The cooling has to be done very precisely. Chickens try to keep their eggs at a steady 37.5C below their body. This is the temperature used in commercial incubators.
Professor Ferguson also believes it is possible, but rather more difficult, to change genetically female chicks into functional males by altering temperature during embryological development which opens up the possibility of only female chicks being hatched out with no males.
That could boost the egg laying industry by ending the need to destroy all the male chicks hatched by the egg laying breeds which provide our egg laying hens. The poultry industry has shown interest in his work, but has yet to come forward with any funding.
Such changes are not unknown in the wild, Professor Ferguson pointed out. The sex ratio of baby crocodiles and alligators is known to be strongly influenced by temperature. If the eggs are kept at 30C the hatchlings are all female and at 33C they are all male

[gayle]

www.backyardpoultrymag.com/issues/6/6-3/determining_sex_in_chicks.html

[bamachicken]

Learn something new everyday. I did not know the female determined the sex of the chick in Chickens

[aveca]

Interesting

[gayle]

www.hatchingchickeneggsnow.com/fertile-chicken-eggs/

[korfuskluckers]

Thanks for posting, great information Gayle!

[gayle]

www.ca.uky.edu/smallflocks/faq.html

It is not possible to tell whether or not an egg is fertilized without breaking it open. Once broken open the infertile egg has a small white dot on the yolk (which is the genetic material from the hen). If the egg is fertilized this dot looks more like a minature donut. Some embryo development begins during the 24-28 hours it takes the hen to assemble all the parts of the egg. The clear area in the spot is the very tiny chick embryo.

[gayle]

www.squidoo.com/fertilechickeneggs

Is it Fertile or Infertile?
To check the fertility of an chicken egg, simply break an egg or egg(s) in a smooth bowl. You should see a white mark on the yolk. If you do not, use a spoon to flip the yolk over until you locate it.

If the egg is fertile, the white mark will be nearly perfectly round and in the center it will be yellow; it will resemble a donut. If it is infertile, the white mark will not be very round, and in most cases, smaller than that of the fertile mark. If the egg is not fertile, the 'white mark' is called a "blastodisc". If the egg is fertile, the 'white mark' it is called a "blastoderm", and this means that cell division,because of fertilization, occurred.

homeschoolblogger.com/timbuck2mom/358867/

How to Tell if an Egg is Fertile or Not
Did you know you can determine if an egg is fertile or not fertile by looking at the germ spot?
The germ spot is the white spot on the yolk. The non-fertile germ spot contains only the female’s cells and looks like a solid white spot. In a fertile egg the germ spot contains both the female and male cells. This allows cells to divide and the spot grows while the rest of the egg is being built in the female’s oviduct. Because of this growth the fertile germ spot on the yolk looks like a circle with a somewhat clear center.