78.5% Hatch Rate?

[mill-j]

I always calculate the percentage of fertile that hatched and the percentage of total hatched. Those two numbers are totally different for me. The percentage of total tells me somewhat how the flock is doing and the percentage of fertile tells me how the incubator is doing.

 

[The Moonshiner]

Ya. I'm not trying to say this or that is the way it should be done. Just sharing my opinion and how I do it.
I can see your point and if I went that route I'd probably say such and such hatch rate of viable eggs.
I do think I can control nature. I do breeding pens so I create what rooster, roosters, what hens, how many hens, what I feed, extra light etc.
Fertility is gonna be a factor in hatching for me. I want a good fertility rate to increase my hatch rate. If it isn't good I need to make changes so that's kinda like changing nature in that pen.
I also hatch a lot so I need all the incubator space I can get so I don't want infertile eggs taking up space.
Shipped eggs are a whole different situation. Their fertility is out of my control and shipping is gonna be the biggest factor with their hatch rates imo. I don't know how to tell if an egg wasn't fertile or just didn't do anything because of shipping. Shipping can ruin an egg and make it never develop same as an infertile egg.
I cant in good faith say a seller sold me infertile eggs because that could not be the case and I wouldn't want to put that out there and harm someones reputation.
When I count every egg in shipped eggs its just for my knowledge. In my case out of every egg I received I only averaged 25% overall hatch. So when I figured how many hatched and total I paid I decided those chicks were coming to about $30 a piece so they weren't worth it to me. I could of figured that amount out whether figure hatch rate on total or viable so didn't really matter to me but if a seller is saying buyers have been getting such and such hatch rate if I was still buying shipped eggs how they figured it would make a difference.

 

[Windus]

I should have kept track of how many of my hen's eggs did/did not hatch in the end as that would be the most accurate hatch rate percentage to me. I had really good luck with the BLRW shipped eggs this time so I was happy with that. I guess I could go and count chicks to see how many of mine hatched.

 

[mill-j]

Wow 30 bucks, when you could ship hatched chicks for about 3 bucks apiece and they're guaranteed to be alive when you get them. I've never seen the point of shipping eggs(well maybe quail etc) especially like Turkeys when the price per egg is about a dollar more than the hatched one's......

 

[The Moonshiner]

Wow 30 bucks, when you could ship hatched chicks for about 3 bucks apiece and they're guaranteed to be alive when you get them. I've never seen the point of shipping eggs(well maybe quail etc) especially like Turkeys when the price per egg is about a dollar more than the hatched one's......

Exactly.
The ones I was buying were rare breeds , colors, quality etc that you can't get from hatcheries so you choice is eggs or chicks from out of state breeders.
I went with eggs because seems they all charge $50, $60 or more shipping plus their high price for chicks.
Eggs weren't cheap either but shipping was a lot less so seemed the way to go.
I always heard 50% hatch rate but I never got near that. Maybe they meant 50% of viable eggs.
But anyways with it all said and done they turned out expensive.
Idk why so many breeders want $5 and up per egg when they gotta know how few are gonna hatch.
Seems they could charge a couple bucks each and still make great money.

 

[lazy gardener]

I would do separate stats for each batch of shipped eggs, and your own eggs. So 3 sets of stats. When I figure my stats, I do 2 sets. One includes # of viable chicks/number of eggs set, and the other includes # of viable chicks/number of eggs that were not clear. This IMO is the most important %. Then, if you want to break it down even further, open the quitters and see if you can find a common denominator to help you problem solve for the next hatch: Early quitters, late quitters, perhaps at a date that corresponds to a power outage or a temp spike, chicks that made it to lock down, but failed to externally pip, chicks that got stuck during/after external pip. Why did they fail to progress? Dry membranes, too wet, malposition, chick too big, egg shape???? Any change in porosity of the eggs that failed??? Failed eggs associated with any particular hen or roo? Failed eggs associated with any lethal genes?

Stats give you a sense of accomplishment, but by themselves, they are just a number. Those stats and your assessment of them will make your next hatch more successful. Read hatching eggs 101 in the learning center???

 

[lazy gardener]

When hatching from my own flock, I can control a lot of variables. I start conditioning my birds about 2 weeks before collecting hatching eggs: extra vitamins, extra protein. Be sure they have plenty of extra calcium free choice. If no free range available, they are sure to get plenty of sprouts. Also, I try to get lots of extra hay/bedding down in coop/run/nest especially if it's mud season to help ensure the eggs are as clean as they can get.

 

[Windus]

In the case of my BLRW shipped eggs, I paid $1.86 per egg, I paid for 12 but they sent 14. In looking at one of my pics, it appears I have 8 BLRW chicks in there so that would mean I paid $3.25 per chick and had a hatch rate of 57.14% which is pretty good for shipped eggs from what I have seen on other threads.

 

[Windus]

For the Black Mottled D'Uccles I paid $3.64 per egg with a 0% hatch rate!

 

[BantyChooks]

had a hatch rate of 57.14% which is pretty good for shipped eggs from what I have seen on other threads.

I'll say it is. Congratulations.