Incubate or order online?

I need 15 Red Sex Link hens and 15 Buff Orpington hens. If I get hatching eggs, there is always the chance I could get roosters which is not what I want, but if I get them online I get exactly what I want but more expensive. Any solutions? Really need an answer!!

No solutions to give you what you want, guaranteed pullets without spending the money. You think spending the money to buy sexed chicks is more expensive. Is it really?

Last year I hatched 21 chicks, 14 of them were pullets. I’ve had plenty of hatches where the cockerels outnumbered the pullets that much. It’s pretty rare that I get a hatch that is exactly 50-50. Over time it averages out but any one individual hatch can be way off either way. How many eggs do you have to hatch to get 15 RSL and 15 Buff Orp pullets? I don’t have a clue.

I had a 100% hatch with shipped eggs. I’ve had some really horrible hatches with shipped eggs, around 25%. Shipped eggs are notorious for not giving you good hatches. Some people tell you that you will get a 50% hatch rate with shipped eggs. That’s not been my experience. Either I get a pretty good hatch rate or I get a really bad hatch rate, and most are on the bad side. How many shipped eggs do you have to order to get 15 RSL and 15 Buff Orp pullets to even hatch? I don’t have a clue.

Do you have an incubator? If not, how much will you spend to buy an incubator that will hold all the eggs you have to put in it to hope to get 15 RSL and 15 Buff Orp pullets?

You will be able to tell the sex of the RSL at hatch so you can get rid of the cockerels and not feed them, but you can’t tell the Buff Orps until they grow out some. You have to house and feed those cockerels until you can tell which is which. You can buy a lot of sexed chicks for the price of one bag of feed.

You need to decide for yourself what you want to do but for me the decision is really easy.

tdaigle said:

I need 15 Red Sex Link hens and 15 Buff Orpington hens. If I get hatching eggs, there is always the chance I could get roosters which is not what I want, but if I get them online I get exactly what I want but more expensive. Any solutions? Really need an answer!!

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You actually answered your own question. If you "need" hens then your best option is to order them online. Yes, more expensive but if you do the math you still come out ahead. 15 of each so a total of 30 hens. Buy eggs and incubate. Have a 75% hatch rate so you have to buy 25% more eggs. Statistically a 50/50 chance of males in the hatch so you have to buy and additional bunch of eggs with the hopes of ending up with 30 hens and you have probably a possible 30 or more males to get rid of.

Order them online, you still have a slight chance of a mis-sexed bird or two but you are more likely to come up to your goal of 30 hens.

Thank you for answering quickly. I am going to see a guy down the road I know very well who sells fertile eggs and see if he can hatch them for me and get the correct gender.

tdaigle said:

Thank you for answering quickly. I am going to see a guy down the road I know very well who sells fertile eggs and see if he can hatch them for me and get the correct gender.

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That would be great if he will do that for you. What will he do with all the extra roosters?

In my opinion, I would order them from my pet chicken online. They are accurate with the sex and so nice and easy to work with. I just love them. They also guarantee the sex and lives. They will send more if you have a problem. They ship overnight too.

I ordered from Ideal. They require a $25 order. I asked for no packing peanuts (roosters). All the chicks I ordered were pullets & are very healthy. My order shipped on March 3. Three are all ready laying.

It will be much less expensive in the long run to order what you want from a hatchery. Even if you end up with a couple of missexed cockerels you will be ahead of the game.

I have had anywhere from 0%-75% hatch rate from shipped eggs. I have also had up to an 80% of cockerels per hatch (shipped or my own). Just order them. The cost is minimal compared to what you will be paying for in general care (coop, feed, predator deterrents, etc).

I just hatched 6 chicks---5 are cockerels If I "need" pullets, I'm not trusting my hatching mojo, I'm ordering from a hatchery.

tdaigle said:

I need 15 Red Sex Link hens and 15 Buff Orpington hens. If I get hatching eggs, there is always the chance I could get roosters which is not what I want, but if I get them online I get exactly what I want but more expensive. Any solutions? Really need an answer!!

Click to expand...

tdaigle said:

I need 15 Red Sex Link hens and 15 Buff Orpington hens. If I get hatching eggs, there is always the chance I could get roosters which is not what I want, but if I get them online I get exactly what I want but more expensive. Any solutions? Really need an answer!!

Click to expand...

I agree with what everyone has said about hatch rate and chance of roosters. Shipped live chicks are usually the correct sex, accuracy around 90-95% depending on the hatchery, but there is another option which hasn't been mentioned.
Sexed chicks from a feed or supply store. We are lucky to have one near us where you can place orders and they have breeds that I have seen in few if any hatcheries. Examples, California greys, Marsh daisies, Iowa blues. Their prices are very reasonable, hatchery prices without paying the shipping.
If you ask there may be something similar in your area.