Day-Old Chick Availability Calculator
Estimate expected saleable chicks and set a conservative preorder limit from eggs set, fertility, hatchability, and a safety buffer.
Free · no account · works on mobile · embeddable
Best for poultry breeders, hatcheries, and chick sellers. Updated .
Set and hatch assumptions
Expected chick availability
Safe preorders = eggs set × fertility × hatch of fertile eggs × saleable share × (1 − safety buffer). Forecasts are planning estimates, not hatch guarantees.
About the day-old chick availability calculator
Publishing chick availability before a hatch is a promise. This calculator works from eggs set through fertility, hatchability, retained birds, expected losses, and a safety buffer to a number you can safely put on a preorder page. It is for breeders and small hatcheries that sell day-old chicks in advance.
How to forecast day-old chick availability
Start with the eggs you expect to set, then apply fertility and hatchability as two separate rates. Fertility estimates how many eggs contain a developing embryo. Hatchability of fertile eggs estimates how many of those fertile eggs will produce chicks.
Why the two percentages should stay separate
If 120 eggs are set at 90% fertility, about 108 are expected to be fertile. At an 85% hatch of fertile eggs, the expected hatch is about 92 chicks—or 76.5% of all eggs set. Keeping both rates visible helps you diagnose whether a weak result began in the breeding flock or during egg handling and incubation.
Use a buffer before accepting preorders
Expected chicks are not the same as safe commitments. Remove chicks retained by the farm, anticipated culls or losses, and a safety reserve before publishing availability. Replace the example percentages with rolling averages from your own candling, breakout, and hatch records.
Worked example
120 eggs set × 90% fertility = 108 fertile eggs. 108 × 85% hatch of fertile = about 92 chicks. Keeping 6, expecting 4 losses, and holding a 10% reserve leaves roughly 74 chicks that can be offered for preorder.
Source
- Mississippi State University Extension, The only good broiler breeder egg is a fertilized egg. Explains that hatchability cannot exceed fertility and why embryo losses make the final hatch rate lower than the fertility rate. Accessed Aug 25, 2026.
This calculator gives planning estimates from the numbers you enter. It is not accounting, tax, veterinary, or legal advice. Replace the defaults with your own farm records whenever you have them.
Frequently asked questions
What is a safe preorder quantity for chicks?
Expected chicks minus the birds you keep, minus expected losses in the first days, minus a reserve of 10 to 20 percent for a below-average hatch. Sell that number in advance and treat anything above it as bonus availability on hatch day.
What is the difference between hatch of fertile and hatch of set?
Hatch of fertile divides chicks by fertile eggs and measures incubation performance. Hatch of set divides chicks by all eggs set and measures the whole system including the breeder flock. The second number is always lower.
Where do I get my fertility and hatch percentages?
From your own records: candling counts for fertility, and hatch counts for hatchability. Use a rolling average over several hatches rather than your best or worst single result.
How does this connect to the hatch rate calculator?
Use the hatch rate calculator after each hatch to record fertility, hatch of fertile, and hatch of set. Feed those averages back into this tool before the next preorder window.
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