EDUCATIONAL INCUBATION & HATCHING CHAT THREAD, w/ Sally Sunshine Shipped Eggs

[kwhites634]

I'm a techno idiot. But, I'll see what I can do. I'll tag you to the gardening thread, so others can get inspired.

Works for me...muchas gracias

 

[BantyChooks]

How big a green house are you looking for? I made a cattle panel 8 x 8, covered with 4 mil construction poly, doors at each end are alumination combination storm windows complete with screens and glass, so it's super easy to open up the venting. However, I need to install a fan, b/c on a warm sunny day, the temp will get up to 100*.

Just to keep this post in context of this thread, if I could keep day and night temps stable, I could hatch eggs in there!

Wait, this thread is about hatching? I forgot.

 

[lazy gardener]

Yeah, hatching eggs, hatching ideas, hatching seeds.

 

[kwhites634]

Wait, this thread is about hatching? I forgot.

And anything else that comes to mind, it seems, until someone comes up with a real live question/comment about chicken-related stuff

 

[kwhites634]

Yeah, hatching eggs, hatching ideas, hatching seeds.

Yup! Thanks again

 

[Pensmaster]

Sometimes when a chicken picture is posted here it scares the heck out of me.

 

[BullChick]

 

[BantyChooks]

Sometimes when a chicken picture is posted here it scares the heck out of me.

 

[Faraday40]

Are English Orps the only breed you raise?
Do you have room for more birds? To keep fertility high, it's important to control inbreeding. I try to keep 3 separate lines and usually have 5 primary roosters. In the course of a year I go through about 20 or more good cockerels after culling those with obvious flaws and then I pare down from those young ones to select replacements.
I have very little space for chickens so it is a major juggling operation. They basically share a half acre or so with all my gardening and bee hives.

I also only have 1/2 acre, so not enough space for as many chickens as I'd like...... I have a mixed flock, so I can make sexlinked orp mixes, or Easter-Orps, or other pretty mutts. English Orps are the only purebreds I can breed. It's easy to tell the orp eggs apart from the others, so those are the ones I prefer to hatch. I like to keep 2 roosters. There are times (like now) when I have more because I'm growing some out. Over the years I've purchased or traded hatching eggs from different people and kept the the best. My June 2017 male came from someone else's flock. I kept him to use him as our breeder. We still have the old man roo because he's beautiful with an amazing temperament. He doesn't mind sharing the hens, has experience, and has become a pet. If needed, we'll keep one of his grandsons for breeding (meaning 3 roosters)......but if the old man can still breed, he's my 1st choice.

It's a balmy 60'F outside right now and feels like April! I definitely saw some mating going on when I put the roosters out this morning (even from my old man roo). Between all the rain & snow melt, my backyard's one big mud puddle. Lots of standing water. Everything's going to freeze back up tonight as we get back down to normal winter temps.

 

[kwhites634]

View attachment 1270676

That's going back a ways