Hatching eggs

Usedhobarts,
Hatching eggs with an incubator is not all that hard. Nobody is born knowing how to use an incubator. We all had to learn. I thought working out the ins and outs of incubation is a fun learning experience! There is nothing like your first peepie
hatching out and drying off all fluffy.
 
I had no idea that the female chicks were weaker than the males. I just recently hatched for the first time and all survived so hopefully I have half females or near half females.
That's awesome! my incubator is cheap and tricky. :)
 
Im not saying each and every one of them. I just mean eggs are unforgiving of newbies. The cockerals are tougher and the pullets die off first. I know im not the only one that knows this.
Uhh, biologically, it's the other way around. Since a single male can fertilize multiple females, in most species the young males are much more expendable, thus more fragile.

back to the OP---

I would think all your eggs should be fertile, if your rooster's under say 3 years old. Is he a red star also? If so, you should be good. You may run across the occasional unfertile egg, but it should be the exception. There are great pictures on the Incubating and Hatching section showing a bullseye spot, where you can visually detect fertility by cracking an egg. I just check every morning when I make breakfast
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I'd suggest going to the Incubating section and reading the stickies at the top, and then some of the threads on storing hatching eggs, etc. Great resources over there!

And as stated, your red stars won't breed true, meaning you wont' be able to tell the sex of the chick by the color. You'll likely get a mix of red and white birds, with maybe some black thrown in or who knows what else...but they'll make great layers. You also need to have a plan in place for the 50% rooster chicks you're going to hatch out.
 
Maybe "weaker" is the wrong word to use. Maybe it just something like the pullet's yolk parts are not as "tight" as the cockerel's yolk parts :) Maybe the hens' eggs are more sensitive to a temperature change.
 

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