- Jul 16, 2012
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I am on my third attempt incubating chickens. I was searching for information/advice when I found this site. My first experince with chickens was about 20 years ago. I had a small coop with about six chickens my favorite breeds then were Polish and Banty. We had a Banty that would ride on the back of our goat, and loved to be held. I had no idea that chickens could be that friendly! Now that my kids are grown up and I have grandkids, I wanted to try again. I bought some chickens from the co-op - 2 Astrolorp, 5 Winedots, 2 Americas and 1 poloish, and a Banty. A month later I bought a Little Giant incubator with the heater and fan. My niece gave me some fertile eggs from her chickens, and I was on my way. (or so I thought) Only one hatched. I learned a bit about pecking order when they did not want to accept the baby. I tried putting the Polish with her, and they became best buddies. It turned out that the Polish was a rooster. He did a good job protecting her when I re-introduced them with the others. On my second attempt with incubating (neices eggs again) my grandchildren turned the incubator up to 110 on day 20. I gave up until my hens started laying a lot of fertile eggs. I put the incubator in my bedroom. The three hens that are sitting on the eggs were not able to cover the 42 or so eggs they had. I took 17 for the incubator. I am on hatch watch right now. On day 11 a chick hatched in the egg turner. I tried to candle and get eggs that looked fertile, but just beginning. I may have gotten an egg that was a little farther along. Anyway I tok the rest out of the turner on the 17th of July and am still waiting impatiently. I candled them when I took them out o fthe turner, and many had an air bubble on the small end. I heard that this might not be a good thing. I wondered if the bubble would move. I checked/candled again today and the air bubbles were all on the large end. They all look fully developed. The temp is holding good. (100 degrees) The eggs have rolled around a bit, but no pips. I keep hearing pecking and cheeping in my dreams. I hope my luck is better this time!!
