Am I the only person who is not using an incubator?

[OkapisRule]

If the hatching dates are too far off, she stops trying for the last eggs. I have recent experience with this.

 

[MissPrissy]

In the past 20+ years I have on had 1 broody hen. I wish it were different but it isn't. If I want chicks of the breeds I prefer I either have to hatch the eggs myself or find someone to sell me chicks. For good quality stock I am willing to spend money on shipping eggs risking getting 0 or a few chicks out of a hatch. To me a few good quality chicks is better than 25 hatchery chicks.

It is not just chicks either. I have tried my hand at geese and manage to hatch out a small gaggle which would have cost me a lot more money had I found someone to sell me goslings. Hopefully next week I will have a few more goose eggs go in the incubator.

I am not interested in purchasing 30 guineas at a time so it makes more sense to hatch a few eggs. Getting to wild things to hatch an egg for you is almost ridiculous. I have these in an incubator also.

I have ducks in an incubator now. To the best of my knowledge there isn't anyone near me that is raising them. If I want them I have to either find a breeder willing to ship or hatch the eggs. It makes more sense to hatch the eggs $$ wise.

I have 6 incubators. 3 I built and 3 I bought. I don't mix fowl in my barn and feilds. I don't mix up eggs in my incubator. I just don't. I don't like it. It just goes against the laws of nature for me.

 

[65browneyes]

Well, my first and most likely only hatch was as successful as I expected it to be. The ONE egg I thought would hatch was the only egg that did hatch. The others were duds, as I thought they would be.

And, I have a feeling the little EE is a cockeral. That will make my existiing silkie roo, Sparkey, the little 6 week old RIR, Rhett, a strongly suspected 3 week old Polish and this one. Hmmmm.......my biggest fear coming true here. alas.......LOL

 

[kees]

I'm going crazy because the first set of eggs should have hatched by now! It's been almost a month and that's not normal yet when I opened one last weekend, there was a fully formed chick, wings and all, with a significant amount of yolk still attached to what looked like a white umbilical cord. Two of my four hens are broody, the others are broody-wannabes or posers. Whenever the wannabes leave their "nests" for too long, the rooster has his way with them and then chases them back into their henhouse.

Do I just keep on waiting?