AUSTRALIAN POULTRY FORUM™

Happy to report the successful hatching of 7 eggs. Mum and babies doing very well. I love watching thoer antics and the way they hide in mums wings - is such a glorious sight. Now that they're a few days old is there any way of telling what sex they are or do I need to wait till one starts crowing?

Also can someone tell me what they success rate usually is if the hen sits on eggs compared to an incubator? And what age can I start to sell the chicks?

You can only tell what sex they are so young with certain breeds because they may start to feather up differently or if you deliberately bred for sex linked babies where the males and females hatch different colours. If not, you'll have to be patient like everyone else

Sometimes as they get a bit older you'll start to see more comb delevelopment on some and can guess they'll be the males, but often you only know for sure when you get an egg or hear a crow! In a couple of weeks when they're a bit bigger you could post some close up photos of their head front on and side on, and their body side on too so everyone could let you know what they think?

The success rate of hens vs incubators probably couldn't be tied down to a definitive answer as there are too many variables. If you have a reliable broody and assuming all eggs start out as fertile (and weren't posted) you'd probably have close to 100%. % starts to go down as you add variables like posted eggs, or first time broody, or a breed not known for broodiness etc Incubators can hatch far more chicks at any given time but require someone to know what they're doing.

Regarding selling them, you can sell when you feel like it. The younger the chick the less you've had to spend on feeding it and the easier to sell 'unsexed'. The older the chick the more people will expect you to have an idea on sex unless you make a point of saying 'guess yourself'. Sometimes its easier to sell them close to day old because people want to raise them themselves, sometimes you might have to wait until they are old enough to sex. Its really up to you.

If you want mum raising them until she weans them (which could be around the six week mark) that could be another option too. You'll know when she wants to wean them because she'll be trying to get away, potentially pecking at them and just not mothering them anymore.

You could always take photos and ask for sexing help at this point?

Good luck, I think you're about to find its more fun watching mum and babies than doing other work

Thanks for the advice. I have some ppl interested in taking them now but they're so cute I dont want to let them go!

arhhhh the age old delemmer to sell or not to one advantage of selling at day / week old is if you keep them how many are going to start crowing and males at any age are harder to get rid of . tis why my freezer is well stocked . cheers n beers gary

You could always leave Mum with just two and sell the rest? Just keep the ones which appear to have the flattest combs (assuming they don't have pea combs) and just hope and pray they're females!

Congratulations on the hatch
And WHAT A GREAT PICTURE !!!!