Starting a chicken or poultry farm is certainly an adventure that requires commitment and perseverance, but often those who start wonder if it is more convenient to start with adult specimens (the reproducers), or by buying eggs (or secondarily chicks). The suggestion we give you? Start with a group of broodstock. Here are 6 compelling reasons to do so:
1 – You can see the players right away. It seems trivial, but the first great advantage is precisely that of being able to immediately see the subjects that will become the new breeders of your kennel, and to weigh their strengths and weaknesses (in some cases you can choose them yourself). This is a huge positive side, because although you cannot know the genotype of the subjects and everything they will pass on to the offspring, the phenotype of the reproducers at least (i.e. the physical appearance) will be perfectly visible and you will also already be able to make assumptions about the characteristics of the offspring.
Starting a poultry farm starting from the broodstock normally allows you to have fewer defects in the new generations right away.
2 – If you buy eggs and they travel before arriving at you, you increase the risk of missed births. Travel by courier drastically lowers, in many cases, the hatching rate. In fact, the vibrations and jolts suffered by the package during transport are transmitted to the eggs, if they are not well packaged individually, and the real risk is that the embryo dies. It could die very early, and at the candling there would end up being many clear eggs or with a blood ring; or you may have late deaths. Another common problem is the detachment of the egg membranes (you will observe the candling chamber that seems “free” to move in the egg. Although there is no shortage of lucky cases of excellent results, you can be satisfied with an average hatching rate of between 25% and 50%. Starting a poultry farm starting from eggs in this case could be a real challenge.
The hatching rate in eggs that have traveled often can be drastically low.
3 – If the seller is not serious, the chances of failure increase a lot. An unserious seller – to say the least – could send old eggs, unfertilized eggs, eggs of breeds that do not correspond to those agreed. There have also been cases of criminals who have sold eggs already incubated and discarded at the first candling because they are empty or have a blood ring – for this reason it is always a good idea to do the candling of the eggs even BEFORE incubating!
4 – If you take the eggs and few subjects are born, you are not sure of having pairs. When you buy eggs of a particular breed that interests you a lot, if few individuals are born – and this risk, with eggs that have traveled, is always there – you may find yourself having only males, or only females. And if you yourself do not have subjects of that breed in the breed, you risk having made the purchase for nothing.
Buying eggs to incubate you are not always sure that you have purchased subjects of the breed you are really interested in.
5 – Saving is not always a kind of money. Many decide to start a poultry farm starting from eggs because they think they will save money on the purchase of adult subjects. But try to add up the costs of eggs, shipping, hatching and keeping the chicks, also consider the subjects that you will have to discard during the selection … And you will see that the price – even a high price – of a trio of high-quality reproducers, able to give you really good offspring right away, will seem like a cheaper solution in the end.
6 – Even starting with chicks is not always convenient. Although the risks are more limited than buying eggs to incubate, taking chicks is also not without risks. In fact, especially in the first weeks it is easy to mistake a hybrid chick for a purebred one, or find yourself with subjects of really poor quality. Don’t forget that many breed characteristics that are important in breeding only manifest themselves well around 10-12 months of age.
Conclusion
Of course, there are cases where a breeder doesn’t have many choices – for example, if he wants to breed a breed for which there are no breeders except in hard-to-reach locations. On these occasions it will be necessary to buy eggs, always keeping in mind that the hatching percentage can be very small (and the waste percentage, on the other hand, high). But in general, the advice to start a poultry farm starting from the breeders, rather than from eggs or chicks, always remains valid. Don’t forget that Novital is by your side with its line of poultry products and incubators, so you can give birth to lots of chicks!
And you, how did you start your breeding?
