In a nutshell, I am hoping to find someone who has eggs from Jumbo Cornish Rock hens and some large meaty breed rooster that they wouldn't mind sending me to hatch out.
My husband and I just ordered a Brinsea Octagon 20 Advance and we are bursting with excitement. Okay, mostly I am. When it gets here, I don't think we'll be able to bear the anticipation for very long before we'll have to try it out. We also got it on clearance so we definitely need to find out if it works properly as soon as possible.
It has been 4 years since we used an incubator last. It was a Hovabator, and it gave us very poor, very disappointing hatch rates. It did manage to hatch a batch of mix breeds from my own flock, but when I went to hatch expensive purebred eggs from quality breeders, it failed miserably. I threw a lot of money (and potentially excellent chicks) out the window because of that thing.
So, I would like to witness this fine new yellow piece of technology in action and see what we were missing all those years ago.
We are not set up for keeping a flock at the moment, so we must go with meat birds that we can process as soon as possible.
I assumed that I would simply order eggs from a hatchery but their eggs are the same price as their day old chicks. I think that's kind of silly... Eggs that may not hatch at all, that I'd have to incubate for 21 days, vs. already hatched, sexed, and vaccinated day-old baby chicks for the same price... what kind of bargain is that! lol
Since only the hatcheries sell the Cornish Rock eggs and chicks, the next best thing for me would be eggs from a Cornish Rock hen. Five years ago I ordered these birds to raise and eat, and ended up keeping three hens all the way to laying age. They turned out to be excellent layers.
I've seen several people here on BYC who kept their "Jumbo Cornish x Rock" hens and ended up crossing them with a large rooster, and hatching eggs with great success. I'd love to attempt to hatch some of these crossed chicks. The fast growth from the Cornish Rock and element of surprise from whatever rooster covered them... sounds good to me!
Thanks everyone!
Jenne
My husband and I just ordered a Brinsea Octagon 20 Advance and we are bursting with excitement. Okay, mostly I am. When it gets here, I don't think we'll be able to bear the anticipation for very long before we'll have to try it out. We also got it on clearance so we definitely need to find out if it works properly as soon as possible.
It has been 4 years since we used an incubator last. It was a Hovabator, and it gave us very poor, very disappointing hatch rates. It did manage to hatch a batch of mix breeds from my own flock, but when I went to hatch expensive purebred eggs from quality breeders, it failed miserably. I threw a lot of money (and potentially excellent chicks) out the window because of that thing.
So, I would like to witness this fine new yellow piece of technology in action and see what we were missing all those years ago.
We are not set up for keeping a flock at the moment, so we must go with meat birds that we can process as soon as possible.
I assumed that I would simply order eggs from a hatchery but their eggs are the same price as their day old chicks. I think that's kind of silly... Eggs that may not hatch at all, that I'd have to incubate for 21 days, vs. already hatched, sexed, and vaccinated day-old baby chicks for the same price... what kind of bargain is that! lol
Since only the hatcheries sell the Cornish Rock eggs and chicks, the next best thing for me would be eggs from a Cornish Rock hen. Five years ago I ordered these birds to raise and eat, and ended up keeping three hens all the way to laying age. They turned out to be excellent layers.
I've seen several people here on BYC who kept their "Jumbo Cornish x Rock" hens and ended up crossing them with a large rooster, and hatching eggs with great success. I'd love to attempt to hatch some of these crossed chicks. The fast growth from the Cornish Rock and element of surprise from whatever rooster covered them... sounds good to me!
Thanks everyone!
Jenne
