FANCIERS' JOUR 



481 



F363 



BIRD 



AND 



POULTRY EXCHANGE. 



VOL. I. 



PHILADELPHIA, MARCH 12, 1874. 



No. 11. 



SEX OF EGGS. 



In our time we have heard of many people who have 

 thought that they had discovered how to produce "sexes at 

 will." We confess to be an unbeliever in this doctrine, and 

 do not think ft was ever intended that mankind should 

 ever discover this; secret. But during the past year we have 

 had brought to our notice no less than three experiments, 

 which seem to have been entirely successful in selecting eggs 

 that would produce male or female as desired ; and as the 

 season of hatching is upon us, and the experiment can be 



It will be seen that 

 in No. 1 the air-cham- 

 ber is directly at the 

 apex or blunt end of 

 the egg; this will hatch 

 a lively cockerel, of 

 quick growth, and light 

 plumage. 



tried without labor or expense, we have decided to give the 

 information to our readers, and have had the following dia- 

 grams made to illustrate the subject more plainly. 



K. B. Edwards says in his pamphlet, which we reprinted 

 some time ago, " Select only eggs pointed at the ends, avoid- 

 ing any that have a tendency to roundness of form ; also 

 examine the position of the air cavities in the eggs, and only 

 retain those that have them placed directly at the apex of 



This is the kind re- 

 jected by all the experi- 

 menters so far, as it 

 "will be good for noth- 

 ing but the pot." 



the blunt or large end, avoiding all that have them placed 

 at all to the side. In this way eight eggs out of ten will 



Mr. Pyle says this 

 will hatch a pullet of 

 quick, healthy growth, 

 and good laying quali- 

 ties. 



produce cockerels." The following is from a correspondent 

 of the London Journal of Horticulture : 



"One of your correspondents revives the old question 

 about the sex of eggs ; I send you my experience. Last 

 winter an old country poultry-keeper told me he could dis- 



This will also hatch 

 a pullet, but of slow 

 growth, a poor layer, 

 inclined to be mascu- 

 line, and will sometimes 

 erow. 



tinguish the sex in eggs ; I laughed at him, and was none 

 the less sceptical when he told me the following secret : 

 ' Eggs with the air-bladder on the centre of the crown of the 

 egg will produce cockerels, those with the bladder on one 

 side will produce pullets.' The old man was so certain of 

 the truth of tliis dogma, and his poultry-yard so far con- 

 firmed it, that I determined to make experiments upon it 

 this year. I have done so, carefully registering every egg 

 ' bladder vertical ' or ' bladder on one side,' rejecting every 

 one in which it was not decidedly one or the other, as in 

 some it is only very slightly out of the centre. The follow- 



