I got my catalogue from my favorite hatchery not too long ago.  Last year my order was royally screwed up.  They got the hatch days wrong, then I ended up with 100 wrong chicks when they finally showed up.  I like black or red birds.  They said my normal black birds ( red rock cross) that I order wouldn't be available because the hatch got screwed up. So, they talked me into red sussex cross which should be red. 

This is what I ended up with - 100 white chickens  They said they were red sussex cross but the parents were switched in the hybrid process.  Whatever.  All I know is that I've got free-range birds that the coyotes will be able to see from the neighbors.  Red or black camouflage themselves where as white sticks out.  We ended up loosing about 20 birds last summer. 

So, taking into account all those problems from last year, and the rising price of chicks ( again), I decided to go back to hatching my own.  I'll try to hatch about 150 birds, half will be boys and will go into the freezer.   I've got 75 eggs in the incubator now and they should hatch April 2. Not all eggs are viable, so I will probably end up with 50 or so.



When we home schooled and were learning about chicks I used this website.

http://chickscope.beckman.uiuc.edu/explore/embryology/

It has a wealth of information if you ever wanted to know about hatching chicks.