What eggs should I incubate first?

[98Luna]

I'll be ordering an incubator that can hold 12 bantam eggs or 9 big chicken eggs. I have a choice of my hens eggs, if they are laying in one or two weeks time. The babies will be cross-breeds. Or I could maybe get some bantam eggs from the school farm. They have good quality sebrights, silkies and I think pheonixes, but I'm not completely sure I can get those. There is also pure-breed silkie, or pure-breed double-laced barnevelder, but they cost $30-$35 for I think a dozen. I might be able to get some frizzle cross too.
Also (yes, there's more!) I have to sell six chicks to someone who asked. And they all have to be female.
So nothing urgent, and it's in a few weeks, after I fence a chicken paddock for them to live in. I'd just like to see what other people think

 

[loveourbirds]

I would stay away from barnevelders, I have no luck with double laced; the are one of the weakest birds I have ever encountered. I have talked to several people who have a lot of trouble with them. bantam barnevelders are almost extinct due to their fragility. the single laced seem to be more durable but they aren't pure bred to the best of my knowledge.

silkies are great brood mothers usually. there is a lot of call for silkies, but being broody they don't lay a lot of eggs. if the silkies have large crests there is a chance of extruded skulls. so keep silkies separate from other chicks.

phoenix is the most durable, but there isn't a lot of call for them. their eggs aren't that big, they are descent layers, some will be broody. when people buy them from me its almost always in small lots.

frizzles are in high demand, but don't breed to frizzles together - its usually detrimental to hatches.

for the customer who only wants female chicks. I would sell them mixed breeds. your chances of buying a dozen and getting 6 females is going to be slim. if you have a rhode island red, production red, or new Hampshire red rooster, you can put him over barred rock hens for sex links. the chicks with white dots on their head will be male. the red rooster over a white rock will work too, if the white rock has the silver gene. if you got it as a chick, and it has the silver gene it would have been dark gray instead of yellow or white.

the only way I sell females is by adult birds, the slower growing pullets that are from a good laying strain I will sell. they would be considered pet quality and I sell them for $7.50 to $10.00 depending on breed and how good it lays. we butcher the weaker roosters for our own use, and sometimes donation to needy families. if your going to try and breed and sell "sorted" chicks you will have to price your females high or you will lose money fast. it costs about $1.50 to produce a chick on a good day, unless you have thousands of birds and commercial incubators.

 

[chiqita]

You will not know the sex of silkies for sure for 4-8 months don't do them if you want to sell sexed chicks. Can you get barred rocks from someone that are from a line that is sexable by head dots? They incubate well and can be sexed.

 

[98Luna]

I only hatch two of my hens eggs, because my other hen is my rooster's sister. I don't know which hen produced what, but they had two chicks that looked almost exactly like barred rocks. They are the two grey chicks in my avatar. I sexed them the same way as a barred rock would be, and I thought a male and a female. The one I thought was female died the night my avatar picture was taken, but the other grew up a bit and is definitely a male. He doesn't look like much of a barred rock anymore, but he does have more very fine stripes under his wings. Would I still be able to sex them the same as chicks if more were to hatch? The mother options are both brown.