[michael85]

hi thanks guys

theres 22 eggs in there and there all a mix of different breeds. Most of them came from a farm where theres 200 hens running with about 20 cocks. We thought we'd fill the incubator right up to give ourselves the best chance of having a decent number hatch.

[GrannieAnnie]

And if they all hatch, have you got room for them all?  

chances are at least half will be cockerels.  Last year we had a small breeding flock to produce our own Shaver blacks which are like the Black Rocks.  I kept getting 2 thirds to 3 quarters cockerels.  They were auto-sexed, but it was heartbreaking to have to cull all those fluffy little boys!  

Good luck with your first hatching though!

[Casey76]

Good luck michael.  I hape you have a good hatch with many girls!  I was really unlucky last year and  ended up with about 40 boys to 20 girls!

Fortunately with the breeds I focus on you can tell pretty early so I was able to cull as I went along, but there were still a few I had to feed until 30 weeks before it was apparant they were boys, which is a real pain... still they were tasty in the end

[evie2]

I hope you have better luck than our hatch last year, we had 6 cockerels and 2 hen Sabelpoots, 1 cockerel and 1 hen Dutch bantam

[joyfull]

and recently I have had to cull about 15 cockerels hatched last year  .

[michael85]

fingers crossed theres a few girls in there.

should have enough room even if all 22 make it to living in the garden for a short time

[michael85]

8 hatched so far, several more are looking good too...