Poultry Talk Ontario (pto.ca)

More that 100 to allow for casualties growing up.

In the end you will have all the chicken you can eat after you cull for defects/ and disqualifications.

Yes, but mainly I would just want to keep all of them, just to see....
This one is interesting
Blue Columbian? on left, Blue chick on right Wings Col. ? wings Blue chick

May just as well round up the rest of them, these guys just wouldn't line up,
this is the "lights" (kept out the super lights) and here are the mediums both show some mossiness on wings already and this completes my F3 Wyandotte hatch, otherwise known as my DIs (Diluted Incompletes)

Is 50 or 100 the magic number of chicks you need to get the best results? :)

More is always better

When you selective breed a lot of genes are not linked which means each kid has a certain chance of getting each gene. If they are linked -like pea combs and blue eggs chances are higher that a pea combed bird will lay blue (higher but not completely absolute). So if 5 genes make the chicken you want and 4 means its no good in your breeding program you need to hatch enough kids to ensure that you get those 5 genes at least a few times..you cant start or carry a line with just one bird. So lets say each has a 25% chance of geeting x and y and z genes the way you want...thats 25% x 25%x25% or .25x.25x.25=.015 chance of.getting the bird you want. So to get 1 bird you need-based on statistics-to hatch 64 birds to get 1....or 1/.015. To get 2 birds you double it...128 birds...and theres no guarantee you will get a boy and a girl...so you need more lol. Thats how breeding programs get challenging and out of hand.

PS .. Just adding you have to start with :flight attendend: good breeding stock as well as we all know . Luck

!0 days old it's move out day, I am afraid an awful lots of them look like cockerels...again!!

I sure hope you dont have my year of the cockerel..here my last hatch 77 birds there are 65 boys. Omg.

WLLady wrote:QR_BBPOST I sure hope you dont have my year of the cockerel..here my last hatch 77 birds there are 65 boys. Omg.

That is an awful ratio, but now that I think of it last year I had 12 cockerels and one pullet in my Wyandotte outcross hatch which is actually even worse.
So what you are saying, is that the 100 chicks rule also applies if you need more than doz pullets?
Boy I hope I get more then one pullet, at this point I am actually afraid to look too closely, I will live for a while in hopeful uncertainty before I have to face the facts. :)