- Jul 29, 2009
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I guess I'll start by explaining how this happened. We have had our chickens for about 4 months and trying to learn as we go. This site has been a great help along the journey. We have (4) 2yr old hens (2 Dominique, 1 Austrolorpe and 1 Something) and (7) 5mo old Golden Comets. One of the 2yr old hens, the Australorp, decided to go broody about a week ago. So, thinking that she was sitting on infertile eggs we ordered some. After ordering them we discovered by looking at some of the other eggs that she may actually be sitting on fertile eggs. I have candled the two eggs that our hen is sitting on and they look as though they are developing, although I am not sure I really know what I am looking at. When they are candled there is a darker area in the egg that I do not see when candling an egg that has just been laid.
So, what to do with the eggs we ordered? I can't put them under the hen or she will leave them when the other two hatch. Can't just throw them out, I paid money for them. My wife wouldn't let me throw out the two the hen is on and start over with the new eggs. My only option was to get/build and incubator. So that is what I did. I found the plans for a homemade one and built it. Got it all setup and let it run for a few days to make sure everything was working.
Tonight, at 10:50pm Eastern, we set our first ever set of eggs in the incubator. We have 16 eggs in there - 12 were ordered and the other 4 were from our flock. We have some Mottled Houdan, White Crested Blue Polish and a few mutts. We are crossing our fingers that we don't totally mess this up. I think we are pretty well informed as to how this is supposed to work but will see if we can pull it off.
We will keep everyone updated as things progress. Thanks for all the help in getting us this far.
So, what to do with the eggs we ordered? I can't put them under the hen or she will leave them when the other two hatch. Can't just throw them out, I paid money for them. My wife wouldn't let me throw out the two the hen is on and start over with the new eggs. My only option was to get/build and incubator. So that is what I did. I found the plans for a homemade one and built it. Got it all setup and let it run for a few days to make sure everything was working.
Tonight, at 10:50pm Eastern, we set our first ever set of eggs in the incubator. We have 16 eggs in there - 12 were ordered and the other 4 were from our flock. We have some Mottled Houdan, White Crested Blue Polish and a few mutts. We are crossing our fingers that we don't totally mess this up. I think we are pretty well informed as to how this is supposed to work but will see if we can pull it off.
We will keep everyone updated as things progress. Thanks for all the help in getting us this far.
