Got a new bator already!

[dancingchicken77]

recap: last month i did my first ever hatch of 3 eggs (pekin bantam) in a rented r-com 3. 1 hatched, 1 died trying to hatch, and 1 was clear. supplier gave us a 2nd chick, so our 1st chick has a friend.

i had just wanted to give my kids (ok and myself!) the experience of hatching chicks, but since then we've bonded with cheepy and kenny, so we have our fingers crossed they are hens ... at 5.5 weeks old so far it's looking good... and we are keeping them. fixed chook house getting delivered on the weekend.

then had a recent agonising wait for another 3 eggs to hatch, this time in my new r-com 3...23 days, finally checked them and they were all infertile. breeder later realised that all her eggs from her show chooks were infertile, because she hadn't trimmed the tail feathers well enough on her show chooks, and the poor roosters had been "bonking doonas", in her words. :lol

THEN i tried to recalibrate my r-com 3 ready to incubate the 3 silkie eggs i obtained from another breeder. turned out the r-com 3 couldn't hold its temp. so i returned it and....

today i got my 24-egg brinsea octagon-20 advance. i think they are from the uk - do you have those ones in north america? i'm just running it for a few hours to get the settings right, and then i'm going to set my now 15 silkie eggs. (i had to get some more

) i can't WAIT for the next 3 weeks to pass. wish me luck!!!

 

[swtangel321]

Hope this hatch is better for you !! Good luck !!

 

[griffin45]

Bought your own incubator! Uh Oh me thinks an intervention may be needed soon! We didn't have a single chicken on September the first of this year and now we have 32! The neighbor says "I bought this incubator for my Grandson and we can't get it to work. Could you see if you can?" Now We have 32 chickens and I built my own incubator and I am hoping that my wife is hatching some silkies while I am away on a work trip. I pray your chickens take good care of you!

 

[dancingchicken77]

that's hilarious! from 0 to 32 chickens in less than two months! don't tell my husband that. on 1 october we had only 2 dogs, now we have 2 dogs, 1 kitten, 2 chicks, 15 eggs in the bator.... he's freaking out that just when the kids are finally getting a little easier (they're 7, 5 and 3) i'm gearing up to build up a farm on our suburban block.

there's a risk of that though. our 2 chicks are pekin (cochin) bantams. the 15 eggs in the bator are white silkie bantams, next i'm going to be incubating some lavender aruacana bantams for an acquaintance...might just have to keep some of those...then she wants some plymoth rock bantams....might have to keep some of those too....

but chooks are GREAT!!! i had no idea chickens were so facsinating and cool and fun. but i'm loving my new hobby a great deal