hahaha! Just filled 3 bators! 1/26 candling update!

[turnerstar31]

lol man i would have gotten a turner for that many eggs that is a lot of turning and i agree there must be a virus or something caz i filled my bator up about a week ago thank goodness i only have the one for now
good luck wit the eggs

 

[Dipsy Doodle Doo]

Lol, I've been pondering the pros and cons of shipping chicks. Maybe when the weather warms up --- it'll still be to cold when this group hatches. When I really think about it tho, I mostly come up with cons

Got a pic of Malcolm? I don't remember seeing him.

I'm lucky I have a friend who takes the feather neck chicks from the naked neck crosses when they hatch.
As soon as I candle around Day 7, I'll start advertising the Silkies, BRs and Am's for local sale.

So hopefully (and assuming I get a reasonably decent hatch from that big group), I won't be keeping brooders and brooders full of chicks for long

Lisa

 

[MandyH]

We have 2 sportsman incubators, a sportsman hatcher, a styrofoam incubator and a styrofoam hatcher and all have been FULL since January of last year. I think you have to be crazy to hatch out 600 birds a month, but we do. We sell chickens from day old to layers from our home and we have had a lot of business this last week. I am trying to replenish all my layers because that is what everybody wants. Plus we sell chicks at Easter and I have to have 500 chicks one week and 500 the next. Lord, I dread it already. BUT AIN"T IT FUN!!!!!!

 

[Dipsy Doodle Doo]

Wow! Kristen, that is something to aspire to (in terms of hatching).
Good luck with 1000 chicks hatching over 2 wks ---- the angst over the eggs at every stage must be tremendous!
Are you using your own eggs and are fairly certain they are fertile.
Do you candle (for fertility/viability) at any point?

If it wasn't enjoyable, you wouldn't be doing it, right?

Lisa

 

[MandyH]

The angst isn't bad, after you've hatched as many eggs as I have there isn't much you can't tackle head on. I have to get most of my eggs from other sources. There is a man down the road that owns a feed store and has most of McMurray's heritage breeds and I buy a LOT from him. He has the old standards like RIR's, Barred rocks, dominiques, etc... I candle pretty much at day 7 so I can toss the duds and then again at day 18 or 19 when I move them to a hatcher. All in all we probably have a 98% fertility rate. I know which chickens are more worried about eating instead of fertilizing eggs and I keep my eye on those eggs. The worst part is marking on every egg. I hand write the date, what breed, the color and all that on each egg or I will forget what is what. And really I do enjoy it, its really cool to have people stop by the house and walk around and see our farm and talk chicken. People are in awe when they see all the things we have here and they LOVE to go into the hatching house and see all the babies. I have a 2 year old daughter and she helps me. That's how she learned how to count and her abc's as she put each chick in its correct brooder.

 

[RUHAMA]

Have fun!! I look forward to restarting mine soon. Am warming and testing the brinsea for your eggs. Always had real good hatch rates with it. (unless postal hazards). Am trying out the brinsea sitting on the yellow egg turner to see if it will turn it for me while at work...til I get another with a turner for it.

 

[PurpleChicken]

I did that once. I ordered to many eggs so I bought 2 more bators to hold
them all. I'm an idiot. I'll never do it again. I haven't been able to give
birds individual attention, ended up with tons of roos, and half the time I'm
not even sure which chicken is which. Thank God people are starting to take
some and the roos are getting big enough to eat.

I hope you do better than I did.

Oh, Bator #4 is in the mail. Did I mention I'm an idiot?

 

[Carole AM]

Here's Malcolm--

 

[AprilAWZ]

O~M~G.... I can not wait until IBW starts at your place...LOL!!!

 

[jkcove08]

Hey Lisa, Off subject but what kinds of ducks are you hatching? Jenn