I lost my favorite BO, and realized I still had a dozen of her eggs left in the fridge. I also only have two chickens left, and feel like they are rather lonely. So I'm on a quest to try hatching some chicks before these eggs go bad. My other chickens are RIR's, which I think are ugly compared to BO's, still I'm gonna put a few fresh RIR eggs in the bater too.
So I've been doing some research, and I think the basics are pretty easy--rotate eggs, candle once a week, lockdown at 18 days (and add humidity). I'm not aiming for a high success rate, just experimenting more than anything.
My concern is not whether I can hatch chicks, but how difficult it will be to keep them alive over the winter here in Indiana. I will keep them in the outbuilding, and I've got two large dog crates, but I'm still worried they would go stir crazy without being able to go outside. If anyone has any experience with this sort of thing, I'd be interested to know how it worked out.
So I've been doing some research, and I think the basics are pretty easy--rotate eggs, candle once a week, lockdown at 18 days (and add humidity). I'm not aiming for a high success rate, just experimenting more than anything.
My concern is not whether I can hatch chicks, but how difficult it will be to keep them alive over the winter here in Indiana. I will keep them in the outbuilding, and I've got two large dog crates, but I'm still worried they would go stir crazy without being able to go outside. If anyone has any experience with this sort of thing, I'd be interested to know how it worked out.