[GrannieAnnie]

The oldest eggs I have yet incubated were 7 days old.  I did 14 Appenzellar eggs and have 2 hens, out of the 14, we got 12 lovely little babies!

[pandora]

Always good to have a solid plan for the boys - my mum hatched out a dozen chicks this year - 1 hen and 11 boys! we'd always planned to eat the boys (we've got Light Sussex and Marans, so hoping there'll be a little bit of meat on them) but now I'm wondering if my freezer will be big enough   . They're all sitting about like a bunch of stroppy teenagers at the moment and I'll be glad when they're big enough to eat really.

We're going to breed more next year and are hoping for a few more girls next time, but the boys will always be for the freezer. You can't really keep cockerels as pets.