I just finished my first hatch early this week (so happy to have "home grown" chicks). I had started with 12 eggs that I bought from a lady on craigslist.org. Well, we weren't sure what the fertility would be like and, with us being newbies, we really weren't expecting much from our first attempt at incubating. Lo and behold, on day 21 we had one pip and on day 22 we had 5 adorable fluffy butts. I did a snatch and grab and put the chicks in the brooder and left the other eggs to have a little more time. Well, today I checked the fertility of the eggs before I tossed them and only one of the seven that didn't hatch was fertile and that one quit early (somewhere around day six[?]....maybe earlier). Now that I know only six were fertile, I feel pretty good about getting five to hatch.
My question is this: when you figure out your hatch rate (percentage) do you use the total number of eggs you tried or do you use the number of eggs that you verified as fertile? I'm assuming it's the later; but, I wanted to be sure.
Using the number of fertile eggs, our hatch rate is 83.33....% on our first hatch (woohoo!!!!). Using the number of total eggs attempted, it's 41.66....%.
I'm pretty sure I already know the answer; but, I wanted to check with the experts.
Here are a few pix of my chicks (just because they're so cute!).
My question is this: when you figure out your hatch rate (percentage) do you use the total number of eggs you tried or do you use the number of eggs that you verified as fertile? I'm assuming it's the later; but, I wanted to be sure.
Using the number of fertile eggs, our hatch rate is 83.33....% on our first hatch (woohoo!!!!). Using the number of total eggs attempted, it's 41.66....%.
I'm pretty sure I already know the answer; but, I wanted to check with the experts.
Here are a few pix of my chicks (just because they're so cute!).
