FREE Blue Cochin Eggs .......Contest

[LindseyM12]

I KNOW I am not going to win but I will do this just for fun I made this it is so simple but I have never got to hatch eggs in it (

)Here it is...

 

[BirdMom]

Built this one when I had an overflow of eggs that wouldn't fit in the one I built first.

We had a cooler lying around that we'd used to keep food cold during a week without power following an ice storm last winter.

Bedside clip-type lamp hubby didn't need for a month or so (he probably begs to differ, I just decided he didn't need it) and he now has back since we're done incubating!

Foil from the kitchen

Left over shelf liner

Old jelly jar

2 sponges 33 cents each

Plastic from $1 picture frame I'd used in building another incubator

Caulk from hubby's tool box


I traced a hole on the lid of the cooler around the metal light shade. Cut the hole out with a steak knife. Lined it with aluminum foil to seal air leaks and keep the hot light from touching the styrofoam cooler. (This light has is in a ceramic fixture and has a metal shade, so nice and safe.)

Cut a rectangular hole in the front of the cooler, squeezed a line of caulk around it on the inside of the bator, and sealed on the piece of clear plastic for a viewing window. I let that dry for a few hours.

Lined the bottom and sides with aluminum foil, then put the shelf liner in. (Okay, I put the shelf liner in after the babies started hatching and were slipping because I forgot to put it in!)

Filled the jelly jar with hot water, put the sponge half in and half out. Put it in a corner of the bator.

Poked air holes all around with a pencil. Taped them closed when needed.

Put the eggs in, set an old temp/humidity gauge in on top of them, kept it around 101, voila! I used a 25 watt light bulb in the lamp, I think, though could have been 15 watts. I did switch the temp/humidity thing back and forth with the other bator and put the little $1 thermometer in this one sometimes as I only had one humidity thing and two bators!

I hatched out ten quail, three chicks, and two ducks in this bator, all in the same incubation. Quail hatched a week before the chicks, and the ducks a week after the ducks. All still healthy, happy, and strong, growing fast!

They're 2 months old now.

We had two, several hours long, power outages during incubation, and still hatched 10 of 18 quail eggs, 3 of 4 chicken eggs, and both duck eggs. My pics show more eggs in, but one of the three duck eggs wasn't fertile, and I moved some of the chicken eggs into the other bator, so ended with four chicken eggs in it.

The incubator with its assorted eggs

Coturnix chicks

Newly hatched ducklings

Fluffy ducklings cuddling

One of the chicks all fluffed up before the other two hatched

I would sooo love to hatch some cochins! We bought a couple of cochin chicks with our guinea keets last summer, but they only survived less than a week. They ate and drank fine, just never grew or started to feather out, and just didn't make it. My kids were heartbroken, as they were their special little chicks, meant to be pet chickens for them. In spite of now having RIR/White rock mix chickens, ducklings, quail, easter egger chicks, and now silkies, (all raised from chicks) they both keep begging for cochins!

 

[PeepsInc]

Wow, there are some really great ideas here. I'm having a hard time picking a winner. So I'm putting every ones name in a hat to be fare. My son will choose the winner when he wakes up.

Mean while I wanted to share the high points of our hike. About 6 miles up the trail, we had stopped to rest. We were sitting there sipping on water,when something let out a squealing growl just 50 foot away. As it sent rocks clambering down the hillside toward us. The first thing to pop in my head was Mountain Lion. Behind us was a 100 foot drop off to a stream. There was no retreating. I sprung to my feet with a stick in my hand. My son yelled It's a pig! Just then I saw it. It was a black bear staring us down, not 50 feet away in the brush directly up hill from us. I told the boy's to stay behind me & make your self look big. We waved our arms & hollard at it. Then it decided we were not on the menu,& it slowly turned and went back up the mountain. Thank God(This was the first & last time I hiked with out a firearm)...It was a bit unnerving,but we continued on toward the summit. About an hour later we finally reached the summit.(2 hours before dark) We had planned on making a simple shelter for the night. So we explored the area a bit,trying to find a good location. Thats when I found fresh mountain lion tracks the size of my hand. The only open areas were those areas that had been stripped clean by constant winds. We decided it was safer to sleep in direct 30 mph winds than to be in the bush where something could pull a sneak attack on us. So we put up our shelter (certainly wasn't preditor proof)& started a fire. Well the harsh wind ate our pile of fire wood at an unbelievable pace. It was like feeding a blast furnace.(We had to hike down the mountain to collect that wood,do to lack of trees on the summit)....Now we have about 1 hour worth of wood left to burn & temps were dropping fast. Our lantern had about 3 hours worth of gas & one mantel left on it holding by a thread. Just then my cell phone rang. (a comferting voice)It was Mom, highly concerned we didn't take a gun with us. We assured her we were fine(not mentioning seeing the bear or lion tracks),and mentioned we were moving location. Of course she didn't want us traveling in the dark.We decided to chance it,& hike down the west side of the mountain were there was no wind @ about 11 pm.(I've been on many night hunts for raccoon,sense I was a kid,but we always had dogs & guns with us) We missed our trail coming down. My son said the one we were on was making him claustrophobic, as it was shrinking on us. So we back tracked,& took our only other option.(Which wasn't the rite trail either) Anyways with in an hour and a 1/2 we were walking threw an open soybean field nestled at the base of the mountain. Holly Lu Ya!( I didn't mention the entire trip down we sang show tunes & did sound off every few minutes to keep track of each other,& scare off animals) If there's a moral to the story, it would be"there's no place like home" or "Dont sleep anywere you wouldn't let your chicken sleep"

Here's a pic of the Lion track & a short Video from the summit.

 

[catwalk]

Dang, I'm glad you're okay! I don't even camp out on my back porch, so I applaud your fortitude! The only way I could have been any use to you on the trip was to help with the showtunes!

 

[Kullas]

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Im glad everything turned out ok. Sounds like ya had a great trip

 

[BirdMom]

Wow! What a scary hike. Bet your kids will never forget that. Love the "pig!" My kids and I were huckleberrying a few years back and heard the wufff of a bear but didn't see it, but we quickly went back to camp.

I'm glad you all made it back safely.

 

[PeepsInc]

These were really great ideas. We drew from a hat & WE have a winner!.......Thank you everyone for participating! I hope this post helps out any one hoping to make a bator.

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[Kullas]

congratz Annarie

 

[PeepsInc]

Annarie....Email or PM me!

 

[PeepsInc]

Bump....I see your online. I sent You an email requesting your mailing address.