Against the odds hatching thread (with pictures and questions)

[adirondak5]

Ooh fun! Are you building her the same kind of coop like yours? You should start a hatching thread, too. Good luck with the incubator hunt. I wouldn't recommend the one I have... Too inconsistent, too much work. But it was free, so... Compromises.

Yea , it will be fun . The coop is going to be about a carbon copy except maybe for the color . My daughter has the list of supplies needed from online sources and has started ordering .
As for the hatching we decided on a Nurture Right 360 Incubator . It was about the right size for our needs , has some decent reviews by some members here and doesn't cost an arm & leg . I'll hatch them at my house and she'll make a brooder at her house when they are ready . We will be starting with a full load of 22 eggs hoping to end up with at least 50 % of what ever hatches as pullets . It will be fun .

 

[UThobbyfarmer]

In other news, I just ordered 75 lbs of chick starter, 50 lbs of grower feed and 50 lbs of layer feed, plus grit, scratch grains, and three bags of pine shavings. No oyster shell because I'll feed them egg shells when the time comes. I don't know if any of that is enough, because I don't know how many mouths I'll be feeding, but... in case there are any feed shortages at any point... that should last us a while. I was very pleasantly surprised to find that TSC delivers, so I didn't even have to leave my house. Wohoo!

Nice! My grow outs are down to 11 after culling at 2 weeks and 6 weeks. They're assorted rare layer or dual breeds, no Cornish X, with a few barnyard mixes for variety. They're 7 weeks old today. They eat approximately 3# of feed a day. So a 50# bag of 20% starter lasts about 2 weeks. They free feed plus free range during the day. They've been outside, no heat, since 3 weeks old. Temp were in the 20's some night but mostly high 30's to 60's. The free ranging started this week.

You've purchased a good deal of feed. Keep it dry and it'll get used faster than you think.

 

[K0k0shka]

Nice! My grow outs are down to 11 after culling at 2 weeks and 6 weeks. They're assorted rare layer or dual breeds, no Cornish X, with a few barnyard mixes for variety. They're 7 weeks old today. They eat approximately 3# of feed a day. So a 50# bag of 20% starter lasts about 2 weeks. They free feed plus free range during the day. They've been outside, no heat, since 3 weeks old. Temp were in the 20's some night but mostly high 30's to 60's. The free ranging started this week.

You've purchased a good deal of feed. Keep it dry and it'll get used faster than you think.

Thanks! It's really hard to estimate how much feed I'll need. Not just because I have no number of chickens to use in the equation yet, but because everybody's estimates are different... and they depend on so many things... I imagine I'll need to keep both the males and the females until the males are big enough to be worth slaughtering. If I'll go through the trouble and trauma of slaughtering/culling, at least I want to get as much meat out of them as I can! So until they start crowing and bothering the neighbors, I'll need to keep and feed all of them... So I have a feeling I'll need more feed, but I'll wait until they actually hatch before buying more.

 

[UThobbyfarmer]

When I grow out roosters for meat I plan to have them till 16-20 weeks. Last year we got busy so they made it to 22-24 weeks something like that. This time around I didn't want to deal with that. So I've made an educated guess at 9 hens and 2 definite roos. Any surprise roosters will be processed.

These were Marans or Marans cross roosters. We typically pull off thighs and breasts. Everything else goes to make gone broth. You don't get much meat at all but I like knowing they've had a good life, quick death and bringing everything full circle.

 

[K0k0shka]

When I grow out roosters for meat I plan to have them till 16-20 weeks. Last year we got busy so they made it to 22-24 weeks something like that. This time around I didn't want to deal with that. So I've made an educated guess at 9 hens and 2 definite roos. Any surprise roosters will be processed.

These were Marans or Marans cross roosters. We typically pull off thighs and breasts. Everything else goes to make gone broth. You don't get much meat at all but I like knowing they've had a good life, quick death and bringing everything full circle.

I have a firm slaughter deadline already set for me... The onset of crowing. I'm in the city so that's gonna be a problem. So however big they are when they start, that's what we'll have. I'm gonna eat every scrap of meat off of them. It's been decades since I last had homegrown meat and I miss it SO MUCH!!! Ahhh that taste. Moving away from the farm and starting to eat store-bought meat was a culinary culture shock for me So I'm really looking forward to anything those roosters can give me!

 

[K0k0shka]

Just wrapped up day 4. Another successful day. Temp has been stable, right on target and the same between all three probes. The incubator is losing humidity very quickly for some reason, and I’m still having to refill multiple times a day, but lucky I’m home now so I can keep a close look and control it.

My babies have eyes and their hearts are beating, apparently. Can’t wait to see them on Sunday!

 

[aart]

The incubator is losing humidity very quickly for some reason

Most of them do. Your house humidity is probably low, which contributes.
Just keep adding water as needed, amount of surface area sets humidity level, depth of that surface area detriments how long it lasts....and again don't worry about keeping DNO at all times.

 

[K0k0shka]

Most of them do. Your house humidity is probably low, which contributes.
Just keep adding water as needed, amount of surface area sets humidity level, depth of that surface area detriments how long it lasts....and again don't worry about keeping DNO at all times.

The house humidity is at 45% or so, but the incubator would drop down to 12% when I ran it empty, if I didn't add any water. I'm using the water trays that came with it, they're pretty shallow so it evaporates fast, but because the incubator is packed to the brim with a full set of eggs + hygrometer + fan, there's no room to add anything else. I've got a good rhythm though, of periodically checking on it and refilling little by little.

By the way, what's DNO?

 

[aart]

By the way, what's DNO?

DeadNutsOn.

 

[K0k0shka]

DeadNutsOn.

Not sure that helps though... What's DeadNutsOn?