My business flops when it comes to incubating and hatching.

[guinea fowl galore]

I've got my business set up so I hatch chicks on request. So far this is not working.
(*PROOF: I just had a guinea keet die while writing this. The guy asked for eight, now I've got two with one egg piped that may or may not hatch. I feel like a criminal*). I originally (and still do) did the hatch on request thing because I don't have the room for a whole heap of chicks if they don't sell.
What do you do? I need some ideas to make my business run smoother.

 

[CBarrett]

Do you only incubate the requested number of hatchlings or do you incubate 50% more eggs than requested? It seems like it would be difficult to incubate and hatch a specific number of eggs.. Unless you have had a very high percentage rate of success in the past?

 

[guinea fowl galore]

To get this guys eight I put twenty-one eggs in. The fertility ended up being 50% due to the cock being young. But at candling I had eleven good eggs. Hatching is such a gamble, I just don't see how my way can work.

Do you reckon I should just hatch however, then sell what I've got and If I am desperate to get rid of some then sell them to the a produce store or something. Does that usually work?

 

[tristancolli]

well at one time i tried the hatching on demand and it worked for a bit. but i found as time went on and the chickens got older it wasnt working so well. so when i got my new batch of chickens i just started hatching everything and when i ran out of space and didnt have enough chicks to fill the next order then i would sell at the livstock auction and start fresh. during the summer at one point i had over 200 chicks. and by the time they were 3 days old i had 6 so i sold them at auction and i made more then i would of per chick

 

[guinea fowl galore]

Auctions sound like a good idea. I have Never been to one before though. I think I'll try to hatch a batch of chicks then see if I can sell them easily. If they do, then great, I'll keep doing it that way.
I still feel really bad for this guy buying the guinea keets. I haven't told him his numbers have gone from three to two yet

.

 

[Duramaxgirl]

What type of incubator do you have? My hatch rates where not as good when I had the little giant incubators. But now I'm always in the 90%+ hatch rates with my GQF cabinet bators. Sometimes your hatches just don't go as expected though. Hope it gets better for you.