Does egg shape determine gender?

[sourland]

To fuel your theory the hen does determine sex of the chick before the egg is ever fertilized by a rooster. Hens tend to lay the same shape of an egg each time, we can often tell which hen laid an egg by shape as well as color or size if you only have a few hens and there is a regular difference. That general shape is going to be determined by genetics.

Fact !

 

[Silexian]

My grandma swore by this theory. I have done some experimenting on it. My findings showed that egg shape had no effect on gender. Round eggs have a higher hatch rate, than pointy eggs. Chicks hatching from round eggs are less likely to pip away from the air cell. Chicks hatched from round eggs are larger and seem to be more vigorous than chicks from pointy eggs. Learning and experiencing things on your own adds a little excitement. Your findings may differ from mine. I would be curious to see other’s results.

 

[everyday_farmlife]

To fuel your theory the hen does determine sex of the chick before the egg is ever fertilized by a rooster. Hens tend to lay the same shape of an egg each time, we can often tell which hen laid an egg by shape as well as color or size if you only have a few hens and there is a regular difference. That general shape is going to be determined by genetics.

The flaw in the theory is that whether it is a male or female chick is supposed to be passed down randomly. So while a hen may typically lay a pointy egg whether it produces a male or female should, in theory, balance out to 50-50 if you hatch enough for averages to mean anything. That's all theoretical but theories need to be tested.

There have been other threads on the forum where people were supposed to test this theory. Some people said it worked every time for them while others said not at all. Most people tend to not get back and post their results. I have little confidence that many people actually rigorously tested the theory. Did they keep track of which chick hatched from which egg? Did they use a dubious theory to determine sex? One time I started to test this myself but noticed that about 1/4 of my eggs were rounded, 1/4 pointed, and 1/2 somewhere in between. I could not get enough eggs that were clearly pointed or clearly round to put as many eggs as I wanted in the incubator so I didn't try it. I was only going to use one shape so I couldn't get the chicks mixed up.

I think this would be a fun experiment to try. See what results you get with your flock. See how repeatable it is. It might make a good science fair project if you start hatching this spring and do a few hatches to get ready for next year's science fair if they keep good records and use a rigorous methodology. Or just have fun with it.

I have 2 laying syssex pullets one lauds more pointed eggs than the other, however, the other hen seems to have a mixture of more pointed round and round round eggs so I think I'll use both hens but put the pointed ones in one incubator and the rounds in another. I'm so thankful I seem to be able to gender guess straight sussex light or buff correctly in my lines anyway. The LS pullets don't grow tails until 15ish weeks roos get there's at a cpl of days to a wk old. The buff sussex are the opposite

 

[gimmie birdies]

I hatched out some batches this last fall/winter. I didn't pay attention to egg shapes, but...
my first hatch, I had 4 boys to 3 girls. Shipped eggs. My next batch I had 2 boys to 5 girls, Then my later batch I had more boys than girls. The weather was getting colder and colder as I collected them. My last batches were all the same rooster but different hens. I would think you would have to look at all factors, shapes, weather. Maybe one rooster produces more hens, maybe it is the hen. If you could figure out a hen and a rooster combo that hatches out mostly hens, and see if that carries down the genes, that would be great.

My current eggs in incubator were from a local farm, but bought from a store fridge. They are round, but the fridge may have contributed to the hatchability, (I have hatched fridge eggs before though,) I will post if I got roosters or hens from my round fridge eggs.

 

[Darrell Cunningham]

For sure its worth a shot, but I doubt there's much truth to this. I heard it too, and though its a bit of an old wives tale, I'd heard of it being fairly accurate for some people. I don't see how the shape of an egg could possibly indicate anything to do with gender, personally.
I can't comment on it with chicken eggs, but one of my duck eggs was pointy ish and one was very round- both hatched females!

So, you could try it, but I definitely would not count on it at all!

Lol you know I was wondering as usual if chickens sex is determined by the hen before she lays why can’t her body produce a shape relating to the sex of the chick ? Hmmmmm . I had success with goose eggs usual the smaller pointed ones are ganders and the large oval without the point trying with my chicken eggs now .

 

[BelovedBirds]

Lol you know I was wondering as usual if chickens sex is determined by the hen before she lays why can’t her body produce a shape relating to the sex of the chick ? Hmmmmm . I had success with goose eggs usual the smaller pointed ones are ganders and the large oval without the point trying with my chicken eggs now .

Because it's been done before and it simply isn't always true. They just dont work like that. The eggs is male or female but the shell is just a shell- different hens lay different kinds of eggs. You could try it, theres no harm in doing so, but I wouldn't expect much from the results. All the eggs would need to be collected from the same hen, incubated separately. I doubt it holds much truth.

 

[RobieRich]

To fuel your theory the hen does determine sex of the chick before the egg is ever fertilized by a rooster. Hens tend to lay the same shape of an egg each time, we can often tell which hen laid an egg by shape as well as color or size if you only have a few hens and there is a regular difference. That general shape is going to be determined by genetics.

The flaw in the theory is that whether it is a male or female chick is supposed to be passed down randomly. So while a hen may typically lay a pointy egg whether it produces a male or female should, in theory, balance out to 50-50 if you hatch enough for averages to mean anything. That's all theoretical but theories need to be tested.

There have been other threads on the forum where people were supposed to test this theory. Some people said it worked every time for them while others said not at all. Most people tend to not get back and post their results. I have little confidence that many people actually rigorously tested the theory. Did they keep track of which chick hatched from which egg? Did they use a dubious theory to determine sex? One time I started to test this myself but noticed that about 1/4 of my eggs were rounded, 1/4 pointed, and 1/2 somewhere in between. I could not get enough eggs that were clearly pointed or clearly round to put as many eggs as I wanted in the incubator so I didn't try it. I was only going to use one shape so I couldn't get the chicks mixed up.

I think this would be a fun experiment to try. See what results you get with your flock. See how repeatable it is. It might make a good science fair project if you start hatching this spring and do a few hatches to get ready for next year's science fair if they keep good records and use a rigorous methodology. Or just have fun with it.

My question along these lines is the time of year incubation determine the viability or gender? I am hatching a batch via incubator during the winter....

 

[RobieRich]

To fuel your theory the hen does determine sex of the chick before the egg is ever fertilized by a rooster. Hens tend to lay the same shape of an egg each time, we can often tell which hen laid an egg by shape as well as color or size if you only have a few hens and there is a regular difference. That general shape is going to be determined by genetics.

The flaw in the theory is that whether it is a male or female chick is supposed to be passed down randomly. So while a hen may typically lay a pointy egg whether it produces a male or female should, in theory, balance out to 50-50 if you hatch enough for averages to mean anything. That's all theoretical but theories need to be tested.

There have been other threads on the forum where people were supposed to test this theory. Some people said it worked every time for them while others said not at all. Most people tend to not get back and post their results. I have little confidence that many people actually rigorously tested the theory. Did they keep track of which chick hatched from which egg? Did they use a dubious theory to determine sex? One time I started to test this myself but noticed that about 1/4 of my eggs were rounded, 1/4 pointed, and 1/2 somewhere in between. I could not get enough eggs that were clearly pointed or clearly round to put as many eggs as I wanted in the incubator so I didn't try it. I was only going to use one shape so I couldn't get the chicks mixed up.

I think this would be a fun experiment to try. See what results you get with your flock. See how repeatable it is. It might make a good science fair project if you start hatching this spring and do a few hatches to get ready for next year's science fair if they keep good records and use a rigorous methodology. Or just have fun with it.
Click to expand...

My question along these lines is the time of year incubation determine the viability or gender? I am hatching a batch via incubator during the winter....

 

[everyday_farmlife]

To fuel your theory the hen does determine sex of the chick before the egg is ever fertilized by a rooster. Hens tend to lay the same shape of an egg each time, we can often tell which hen laid an egg by shape as well as color or size if you only have a few hens and there is a regular difference. That general shape is going to be determined by genetics.

The flaw in the theory is that whether it is a male or female chick is supposed to be passed down randomly. So while a hen may typically lay a pointy egg whether it produces a male or female should, in theory, balance out to 50-50 if you hatch enough for averages to mean anything. That's all theoretical but theories need to be tested.

Hey, so after 2 hatching seasons I have discovered the hen determines the gender regardless of egg shape.
I have a light sussex hen #02 who produced 21 pullets from 24 of her eggs last season.
This season 2 of those pullets were retained #08 and #09 and they are also throwing a lot of pullets we have hatched 24 to date (from these 2 hens) and only 2 have been cockerals, however we have another hen who was hatched from different lines last year and she has produced 6 out of 8 cockerals so she is no longer in the breeding pen!
She is however still in the show flock as she won multiple overall reserve champion soft feather last year

 

[everyday_farmlife]

My question along these lines is the time of year incubation determine the viability or gender? I am hatching a batch via incubator during the winter....

You'll have to let us know!
I don't know if time of year would affect my pullet throwing hens as that's show season over here so they can't be in with the cock bird as their feathers have to be kept in pristine condition after the summer moult.