My husband and I bought hatching eggs from a farm back in August and used a home made incubator he made. He raised chickens solely for meat as a little boy hatching a few at a time on his own and I grew up in a chicken raising family, 100 at a time for meat, but we always ordered our chicks. My grandparents had a hen house with at least 50 layers. So we had some experience with chickens, but its been decades. We'd always wanted our own egg layers and our intent is to have anywhere between 6-12 egg laying chickens when we finish.
We fit 28 eggs inside, hatched out 22 at the end, losing 3 at about day 13-14 and 3 more on the hatching days. Much better than we expected. We thought if we had about a 50% hatch and about 50% of those were hens or so, we'd be about on target. The farm we found had rhode island reds and barred rock for sure. Since the hatch we realize we also have lots of "mutts" of course and other breeds mixed in. Maybe even some feather footed silkies or silkie mixes. So far we've been having a wonderful time although no one has had to go out in the early freezing cold hours of the morning to take care of them yet. Living in Kansas we have a little time yet before we get any weather even close to that. Just wanted to share a few pictures of our babies. The last one is from right after hatching. Thanks for looking.
We fit 28 eggs inside, hatched out 22 at the end, losing 3 at about day 13-14 and 3 more on the hatching days. Much better than we expected. We thought if we had about a 50% hatch and about 50% of those were hens or so, we'd be about on target. The farm we found had rhode island reds and barred rock for sure. Since the hatch we realize we also have lots of "mutts" of course and other breeds mixed in. Maybe even some feather footed silkies or silkie mixes. So far we've been having a wonderful time although no one has had to go out in the early freezing cold hours of the morning to take care of them yet. Living in Kansas we have a little time yet before we get any weather even close to that. Just wanted to share a few pictures of our babies. The last one is from right after hatching. Thanks for looking.
