A tip about breeding, Ruby... and why you don't see many stressing over whether they are girls or boys early... some things show early to cull for, but most things you need to grow out the birds to proper age to evaluate them properly... usually by that time, it's obvious which are boys and girls... and you want to keep improving so you want to see the boys anyways in case you get better than what you are using...
Yeah, I hear you. I have one boy that has been a late bloomer. There's still moments I question his sex and he's almost 6 months! But with these, they were not a color that I wanted to stick with. So all boys and girls had to go. The chicks I have growing out now will be my new foundation. So, you're saying to give them all a chance and let them develop before picking which boys stay. That makes a lot of sense!
A question to all others who ship eggs - what's your policy on if the buyer has clear eggs that don't develop? I had a person interested in my eggs ask and I told them that if they were infertile I'd 100% refund them for them, but I couldn't guarantee hatch rate due to shipping and incubating techniques. Is that about what everyone else does? I know that shipping can be so hard on eggs that even a perfectly fertile egg that appears undamaged may not develop.
If you know that your fertility is good, then I wouldn't even mention a refund on fertility, unless you were having issues in that department. A lot of fertile eggs can be non viable after shipping. And when I've cracked eggs that appeared to be "clear" after 7-10 days of incubation, the yolk has been scrambled and I couldn't check for the bullseye.
That's one thing I love about raising turkeys..surplus males are worth more than females and worth even more when grown out regardless of quality. Males sell well in fall, females in spring, trios in summer.
Sounds perfect! Lol. My grandfather breeds pigeons. And they mate for life, so one boy to one girl. He couldn't understand why I was having trouble placing the Roos until I explained it to him. Not a big market for roosters!