First Time Incubating! SO EXCITED!!

[AmyLynn2374]

It is such a fun learning experience!! Only thing is, once you do it the first time, you'll become addicted and start doing it again and again. I'm on my 3rd in 3 months...lol I am even considering a 2nd incubator.Lol I don't keep them all though, I sell them to help pay for feed and stuff. I live in an area where they are easy to sell, and if for some reason I have left overs, we have a local chicken auction. The auction doesn't bring as much $ though some days. I figured with spring coming up, they will be in higher demand.

As far as roosters go, I can keep them, but not all of them. I'm kinda partial to roosters. I think they are all beautiful with their colorful stringy feathers that glisten and then there's their beautiful curved tail. I would keep them all if I could.

Amylynn atleast you go some girls from yours. I would love to see them all. I'm sure they are getting huge by now. I wish I could end up with an all white. Any idea what breed she is? I'm gonna try to generate an all white EE this summer.....

And the crowing!!!!!! Are they still in the house? That would be so funny to wake up to. BTW, are you expecting that HUGE blizzard that's headed north?

I know she is mixed with silkie as she has the 5 toes and lightly feathered feet, but I am unsure what the other half of the mix is. OMG, yes they are still in the house and it's driving me nuts. The first 6 weeks aren't bad, but now, it's so much work and I'm going through bedding like crazy cause they have to be changed out every other day or they will smell. It'll be a little easier once these 5 roos are gone and everyone has more space and less poop...lol (I like my roos too, maybe more than most of the hens.....lol)
Not funny to wake too!!! lol Most of the time they wait until they hear me up to start, but there are mornings (like today) that they start before I am up! I can't wait for the snow to start clearing so the coop can be finished and they get outta the house! It's going to take a lot of clorox to totally cleans the playroom so I can turn it back to the play room...lol
We are so far up north we shouldn't get much from the storm. We have a lot of below zero nights this week though.
I'll have to throw a couple picture collages together to show what they look like now. Wait until you see my polish/silkie girl. I just love her!!! lol
We have so many chicken farmers up here I don't think I'd ever be able to make anything selling them...lol

 

[StephensonC]

I know she is mixed with silkie as she has the 5 toes and lightly feathered feet, but I am unsure what the other half of the mix is. OMG, yes they are still in the house and it's driving me nuts. The first 6 weeks aren't bad, but now, it's so much work and I'm going through bedding like crazy cause they have to be changed out every other day or they will smell. It'll be a little easier once these 5 roos are gone and everyone has more space and less poop...lol (I like my roos too, maybe more than most of the hens.....lol)
Not funny to wake too!!! lol Most of the time they wait until they hear me up to start, but there are mornings (like today) that they start before I am up! I can't wait for the snow to start clearing so the coop can be finished and they get outta the house! It's going to take a lot of clorox to totally cleans the playroom so I can turn it back to the play room...lol
We are so far up north we shouldn't get much from the storm. We have a lot of below zero nights this week though.
I'll have to throw a couple picture collages together to show what they look like now. Wait until you see my polish/silkie girl. I just love her!!! lol
We have so many chicken farmers up here I don't think I'd ever be able to make anything selling them...lol

I know, the poop is bad enough with just my 2 littlest in the brooder, so I can't imagine having that many almost full grown pooping. Hats off to you for having to clean that. One way to look at it though, is atleast you haven't been dealing with frozen waterers. We had to turn our water off at the barns to keep the pipes from freezing, so I have been dragging jugs of water back and forth from the house to keep the waterers from freezing up. I moved the 8 from the first hatch out last week. They are in a big homeade cage type thing underneath a barn shelter. They still have the heat lamp, but they don't use it much. They love it out there. I plan to put them in the coop within the next 2 weeks. Can't wait to see pics!! I bet the polish/silkie is a sweetheart! They are known for being very sweet! My husband wants some Silkies. I plan to get some just to drag him into the addiction with me...lol

 

[AmyLynn2374]

I know, the poop is bad enough with just my 2 littlest in the brooder, so I can't imagine having that many almost full grown pooping. Hats off to you for having to clean that. One way to look at it though, is atleast you haven't been dealing with frozen waterers. We had to turn our water off at the barns to keep the pipes from freezing, so I have been dragging jugs of water back and forth from the house to keep the waterers from freezing up. I moved the 8 from the first hatch out last week. They are in a big homeade cage type thing underneath a barn shelter. They still have the heat lamp, but they don't use it much. They love it out there. I plan to put them in the coop within the next 2 weeks. Can't wait to see pics!! I bet the polish/silkie is a sweetheart! They are known for being very sweet! My husband wants some Silkies. I plan to get some just to drag him into the addiction with me...lol

That's the way to go, drag him in and then you don't have to worry about the word "no"....lol My two silkies are flighty. Out of all of them they are the least friendly. My Polish silkies are the best though and my roo is going tohave to go.

He's so pretty. The pics just don't do them justice! Not dealing with the cold and worrying about them in negative 20 below temps is a nice exchange though...lol If they would just learn to use a litter box! lol

 

[StephensonC]

That's the way to go, drag him in and then you don't have to worry about the word "no"....lol My two silkies are flighty. Out of all of them they are the least friendly. My Polish silkies are the best though and my roo is going tohave to go.

He's so pretty. The pics just don't do them justice! Not dealing with the cold and worrying about them in negative 20 below temps is a nice exchange though...lol If they would just learn to use a litter box! lol

I like the litter box idea!!

 

[AmyLynn2374]

Here's the roll call:


This was at about 10 weeks. ( a couple weeks ago)

Gibbs, Chip, Chocolate, Rollie and Scrappy are the roos that will going and Chaos is the one I haven't figured out yet.

 

[StephensonC]

Here's the roll call:


This was at about 10 weeks. ( a couple weeks ago)

Gibbs, Chip, Chocolate, Rollie and Scrappy are the roos that will going and Chaos is the one I haven't figured out yet.

Awwwww they are so cute. David is such a cutie!! And I still like Lucy/Mumble!! And look at Angel....she is precious, especially with those feathered legs! They are all so cute. I would have a hard time letting them go!!

 

[AmyLynn2374]

Awwwww they are so cute. David is such a cutie!! And I still like Lucy/Mumble!! And look at Angel....she is precious, especially with those feathered legs! They are all so cute. I would have a hard time letting them go!!

I'm keeping David. I fell in love with his coloring and decided if I have to have two coops and runs he was staying! lol Chocolate the polish/silkie roo is going to be the hardest for me to let go. He's a sweetheart.

 

[StephensonC]

I'm keeping David. I fell in love with his coloring and decided if I have to have two coops and runs he was staying! lol Chocolate the polish/silkie roo is going to be the hardest for me to let go. He's a sweetheart.

Welllllll, you can never have too many coops and runs....lol

Hey I have a question for you since I know you do dry hatches. The last one I did, I did it dry. Only ended up with 2 out of 13, but they were shipped eggs. I was gonna try it dry this time, but I couldn't get the humidity above 31%, but was averaging 25%. Isn't that a little too low? I did end up adding some water to bring it up a tad.

 

[AmyLynn2374]

Welllllll, you can never have too many coops and runs....lol

Hey I have a question for you since I know you do dry hatches. The last one I did, I did it dry. Only ended up with 2 out of 13, but they were shipped eggs. I was gonna try it dry this time, but I couldn't get the humidity above 31%, but was averaging 25%. Isn't that a little too low? I did end up adding some water to bring it up a tad.

When I researched dry hatches every source I looked at stated a different humidity percentage what I found were percentages between 25-50% My bator held about 40/45% (if my hygrometer is close to accurate,) w/o water in the wells. I probably wouldn't worry unless it was 20% or my air cells were growing too fast. I rely heavily on monitoring the air cells, that way if they are off I know I need to adjust.

 

[traceyj]

So there's no *magic* number for humidity?