How many hatching eggs should I get?

[peep-a-boo]

Hello! I really want a couple of ameraucana bantams (a blue wheaten and a wheaten or wheaten splash) and I'm exploring my options. Being that I only want 1 of each color, how many hatching eggs should I get? What has been your experience of hens:roos when hatching? Do the eggs usually all hatch or do you order extra just in case? Thanks!

 

[Gypsy07]

With eggs from my own birds, I usually manage to hatch between 65 and 90% of the eggs that were fertile. I occasionally get one or two infertile eggs and obviously those ones have no chance of hatching. With shipped eggs, my hatch rates are MUCH lower, occasionally as low as 0% of fertile eggs...

The numbers of hens and roos hatched should be equal, but of course with just a few chicks you could well get all hens or all roos, it's just pot luck really. So... you could incubate two eggs and get two hens, you could incubate six eggs and get three roos, or you could incubate two dozen eggs and get nothing!

 

[enggass]

What I did and am doing is based on the 50% theory... Assume 50% hatch, assume 50% roos... like the previous post said there are NO guarantees, but this is how I approached it. If you want 1 of each breed, I would get 4 eggs of each...

ETA: You're talking different colors not breeds so your odds are even more messed up

 

[dsqard]

Yeah I have to agree with the other posters. I hatched five chicks in January and wound up with four boys.

You should order extras for sure especially if they are shipped eggs. I had 14 eggs of a certian breed and color shipped to me. All were fertile. Two had to be removed since they developed blood rings. Out of the other 12, six hatched. They are too young yet to tell what sex they are. On some other shipped eggs, I had seven shipped, four made it to lockdown, two hatched. One died the next day. All of the shipped eggs I have received have all been very well packaged. You just don't know what happens to them once the USPS gets their hands on the boxes.

 

[Illia]

Yep, if eggs are shipped, I always say it is safe to get 4 eggs of each of what you want per 1 bird you hope to have. That right there would probably be the worst case scenario. (besides none hatching, which can happen, but not often)

As for hen/roo ratio, gosh, it changes so much. I say for every 5 chicks there should be at LEAST one female. But hey, some hatches come out purely or mostly female

 

[SilkieChickenLover336]

i always get 12-24. the more the better because then you can pick which ones you like