How many eggs to hatch?

[mikki717]

If the percentages are accurate, most people have a 40% hatch rate from the eggs they set. (yes there are exceptions!!) So if you set 10, expect 4 to hatch. From those, expect 2 to be cockerells, and 2 to be pullets. Once they hatch, there is a mortality rate as well. If you go by a 50% mortality, chicken math works out for 1 pullet per 10 eggs.

No matter how many eggs you hatch, you have a 50 / 50 chance of getting a pullet.

 

[Costa Rica Art]

If it were me, I would buy one of the class room incubators, the one that only does one egg. Even if you have a failure the one that does hatch is 50/50 a pullet,

if so you are done, if not then with any odds the next one would be what you want.

I know you could hatch several cockerels and no pullet but very unlikely.

To me it would be easier to get rid of one roo than several if you hatched 7 eggs and they all hatched which is not unusual.