Arizona Chickens

[BlueBaby]

Oh, but I'd presumably need an incubator for hatching eggs, right?
I have lights, etc for chicks, but no incubator.

Yes, unless you have a friend that has one that you can borrow. I bought my Harris Farm Nurture rite 360 on Amazon. I went there to look earlier this morning and seen that the price on those have gone up also. I had been thinking about buying a second one of those.

 

[Happy Novogens]

I would guess that asking her if she would hatch 3-5 eggs, that that would be too few to be worth it for her, or too much hassle? Since she said she doesn't have time to raise them, I'd have to take all that hatch.

 

[BlueBaby]

I would guess that asking her if she would hatch 3-5 eggs, that that would be too few to be worth it for her, or too much hassle? Since she said she doesn't have time to raise them, I'd have to take all that hatch.

If she has a higher capacity incubator, she might not want to hatch that small of a batch in it as the heat wouldn't distribute evenly. Maybe you could look for one of those smaller incubators like they use in the school class room's that hold's no more then maybe 6 or 7 eggs??

 

[springvalley123]

If she has a higher capacity incubator, she might not want to hatch that small of a batch in it as the heat wouldn't distribute evenly. Maybe you could look for one of those smaller incubators like they use in the school class room's that hold's no more then maybe 6 or 7 eggs??

Then she'd need a backup plan in case only 1 hatched.

 

[cavemanrich]

I would guess that asking her if she would hatch 3-5 eggs, that that would be too few to be worth it for her, or too much hassle? Since she said she doesn't have time to raise them, I'd have to take all that hatch.

See if the person will sell you fertile eggs,, Then you have 3 options. Get a small incubator. Find someone near you that can incubate the eggs with their batch,, Wait for one of your hens to go broody.
Last option is slightly risky, since you are not sure of when a hen will go broody,, and will stay broody the total duration to hatch out.
In my opinion,, best choice would be a small incubator.
If you can budget the NR360, that would be an excellent option,, since these incubators have excellent reviews. Then keep hatching from your hens, and sell the chicks.
You would of course have to be ready to deal with the possible 50% roosters. Not sure if you would be willing to process/eat them,, or willing to let others have for their dinner table.

 

[igorsMistress]

April...such a long wait.

It’ll be here before you know it!

 

[igorsMistress]

@Happy Novogens hatching is an option of course, but you should know that the average hatch is 50/50 pullets and cockerels. So if you have your friend hatch and don’t want a roo you’ll need to have a plan for them. It could be worse than that too; I had four of six chicks turn out to be cockerels and had to send them to freezer camp a couple of weeks ago.

 

[EmmaDonovan]

We are having a debate here... what animal is that eye from, igorsMistress?

 

[igorsMistress]

We are having a debate here... what animal is that eye from, igorsMistress?

It’s my dog Frank. He has heterochromia iridum. This is an older pic, but here’s a face shot of him with his little sister

 

[EmmaDonovan]

Wow, beautiful! (My roommate won, she said it was from a dog!)