I'm not sure if it's true or not but there always seems to be more cockerels than hens when you hatch out chicks!
Take this batch of chicks for example. Five hatched last October (very late - not planned!) and it turns out four are cockerels and only one is a hen!
The hen I'll keep as a laying bird but the boys have a different destiny, I can see four Sunday roasts, a few curries and at least a couple of risottos in front of me!
Who else thinks that there seems to be more male than females when you hatch chickens or am I just being negative due to this last batch?
You are right about that and I have also found that if a chick dies it is usually a pullet and not a cockerel. I suspect that they are stronger even in the egg and just seem to thrive. I suppose that in the days of wild chickens that predators would be busy eating cockerels who are brightly colored and the hens might escape, don't know but it is a pleasant thought at least.
ReplyDeleteAll i know is I'd certainly prefer it the other way round!
DeleteTried to set pullet vs. bullet eggs in incubator. Bullet shaped eggs are supposed to be cockerels, rounded eggs, female. Still got more roosters. God works it out, can eat a cockerel only once, hens lay over several years.
ReplyDeleteI've not heard of bullet eggs, I'll have to look at them harder next time.
DeleteI know my neighbors raise roosters, they seem to have plenty.
ReplyDelete( they raise them and then sell them in Mexico )
I was offered soem from a local farm that breed rare breeds and want to get rid of their roosters/cockerels but I've never got round to getting set up for growing them on.
Deletesame here, the up side is plenty of dinners, I did read something once its all to do with temperature and if you want more hens to do it at a certain time of year but cant remember the details
ReplyDeleteI've read about the temperature thing but these hatch as it was getting much colder.
DeleteThat's so funny, we always get more pullets. Maybe it's because I'm hoping for roosters for the freezer! I wonder if the hen or rooster determines the sex.of the chick?
ReplyDeleteMaybe we should swap!
DeleteI've heard that the older the rooster, the more roosters are produced.
ReplyDeleteThat would make sense, I guess he's breeding his replacement. Also it seems that we've had more roosters in later years and our old boy is getting on now - this will be his sixth year!
DeleteI have read that its related to incubation temperature. If its on the high side you get more roast dinners... we usually get half / half. I inly found out because I was watching a doco about crocodile farms... they deliberately raise temps as they want more biys for bigger skins. Birds are similar (tiny dinosaurs!).
ReplyDeleteI've read about temperature but these were hatched really late in the year, outside.
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