Hatching Eggs the Scientific Way!

[Sally Sunshine]

I think I figured out my next RCom 20 Experiment: Maximizing the number of eggs by stacking them! I bet I could almost fit 50 eggs in there with the right contraption!

I can only ideate hatch day....

 

[cchardwick]

How about this idea, extend the top of the incubator so that it rises up about six inches and then stack five levels of eggs! That would be 100 eggs total, just imagine trying to raise that huge flock. I bet it would work if you had more of the plastic egg trays and used dowels to glue them on top of each other at the right height so that when the bottom eggs turned they all turned. Of course at hatch time you'd end up with a big pile of chicks!

 

[Sally Sunshine]

How about this idea, extend the top of the incubator so that it rises up about six inches and then stack five levels of eggs! That would be 100 eggs total, just imagine trying to raise that huge flock. I bet it would work if you had more of the plastic egg trays and used dowels to glue them on top of each other at the right height so that when the bottom eggs turned they all turned. Of course at hatch time you'd end up with a big pile of chicks!

OMG! Lowes I need more lumber and roofing!!!! LOL

 

[cchardwick]

I was actually thinking of selling a lot of my chicks, especially if I hatch a whole bunch of them. For eggs I can get about three bucks a dozen max, but I can probably get $48 a dozen for baby chicks!

 

[Sally Sunshine]

I was actually thinking of selling a lot of my chicks, especially if I hatch a whole bunch of them. For eggs I can get about three bucks a dozen max, but I can probably get $48 a dozen for baby chicks!

Have you ever shipped baby chicks? Whats the best to breed for cash like that? Always wondered since I am unemployed and can set eggs...

 

[cchardwick]

Actually I was thinking of hatching them and delivering them to nearby towns on the way to work. Or people could come and pick them up. I'm betting I could advertise on Craig's List for free. If I hatched year round I could corner the market for the off times when people want to buy chicks but don't want to pay the shipping and can't find them at feed stores. I'm going to start by hatching one batch batch and see what the hatch rate is, perhaps I'll add the first round to my flock. If I can have a good hatch rate I'll probably take orders in advance and sell them before they hatch! And if that works I may get an R-Com 50 Pro with USB! If I could hatch 70 chicks at a time and sell them for $4 each I could make an extra $280 every three weeks which would pay for my incubators in no time at all. And these high end incubators are so easy, just set the eggs and forget about them, but don't forget to fill the water reservoir every few days though!

Personally I think any popular breed would work, even a barnyard mix. I have really nice Rhode Island Reds which are one of the best brown egg layers and good for meat too. They are brown which is a plus up here in the mountains since the wild animals go after white chickens a lot more. I'm actually going to get into turkeys in the spring too! I'm guessing the local bear and mountain lion populations will keep me in business for a long time since most lose their flocks to these wild beasts.

 

[Sally Sunshine]

Actually I was thinking of hatching them and delivering them to nearby towns on the way to work. Or people could come and pick them up. I'm betting I could advertise on Craig's List for free. If I hatched year round I could corner the market for the off times when people want to buy chicks but don't want to pay the shipping and can't find them at feed stores. I'm going to start by hatching one batch batch and see what the hatch rate is, perhaps I'll add the first round to my flock. If I can have a good hatch rate I'll probably take orders in advance and sell them before they hatch! And if that works I may get an R-Com 50 Pro with USB! If I could hatch 70 chicks at a time and sell them for $4 each I could make an extra $280 every three weeks which would pay for my incubators in no time at all. And these high end incubators are so easy, just set the eggs and forget about them, but don't forget to fill the water reservoir every few days though!

Personally I think any popular breed would work, even a barnyard mix. I have really nice Rhode Island Reds which are one of the best brown egg layers and good for meat too. They are brown which is a plus up here in the mountains since the wild animals go after white chickens a lot more. I'm actually going to get into turkeys in the spring too! I'm guessing the local bear and mountain lion populations will keep me in business for a long time since most lose their flocks to these wild beasts.

I also am in the mnts but Appalachian in pa which are NOT at all like your mnts. So I lock them up at night, and really dont have issues during the day. Sounds like a great plan! Good luck with that and keep in touch, msg me with your results on the CL stuff!! I was thinking about it, but I have already dug so many post holes in the mountains I dont think I could do any more to make new areas to keep roos with same hens!!! : (

 

[JHorn91180]

Actually I was thinking of hatching them and delivering them to nearby towns on the way to work. Or people could come and pick them up. I'm betting I could advertise on Craig's List for free. If I hatched year round I could corner the market for the off times when people want to buy chicks but don't want to pay the shipping and can't find them at feed stores. I'm going to start by hatching one batch batch and see what the hatch rate is, perhaps I'll add the first round to my flock. If I can have a good hatch rate I'll probably take orders in advance and sell them before they hatch! And if that works I may get an R-Com 50 Pro with USB! If I could hatch 70 chicks at a time and sell them for $4 each I could make an extra $280 every three weeks which would pay for my incubators in no time at all. And these high end incubators are so easy, just set the eggs and forget about them, but don't forget to fill the water reservoir every few days though!

Personally I think any popular breed would work, even a barnyard mix. I have really nice Rhode Island Reds which are one of the best brown egg layers and good for meat too. They are brown which is a plus up here in the mountains since the wild animals go after white chickens a lot more. I'm actually going to get into turkeys in the spring too! I'm guessing the local bear and mountain lion populations will keep me in business for a long time since most lose their flocks to these wild beasts.

Shouldn't u keep the first round to see if the experiment worked at least until they r old enough to sex?

Also not at all trying to burst your bubble but as someone who takes orders and sales and hatches many chicks I wanted to offer a bit of advice. In my area for common pure breeds especially those that r not SQ birds and mixed breed large fowl chicks r a bit steep at $4 a chick for straight run. Even with paying shipping u could order all RIR pullets for example from many hatcheries and it would probably average less per chick then that, especially if they just went for an egg laying special. During the winter months u may find it hard to find buyers as many people prefer not to deal with raising chicks while its cold. I only hatch and sell SQ and very rare and imported breeds during those months. Also during the seasons that feed stores offer chicks sexed, u can purchase them cheaper then that at the feed store. I would highly recommend placing adds first and take orders and a list in advance b4 u begin hatching a ton of chicks to see what the demand is and what to set the price of your chicks at in your area so u don't end up stuck with a ton of chicks u cant even give away. Also during the normal season I have very good luck selling guinea keets and eggs as the demand has been very high for tick control. My colors r rare to very rare and I get alot more per keet then pure bred chicks if u don't factor in my rare imported lines of chicks and SQ birds. Guinea eggs r very fertile and tough and hatch easily so u might give that a try this spring. I also have turkeys and the demand for poults is only good for a few months in early spring and then kinda peters out toward the summer months for day old poults. During the off season like now I usually plan for my registered Bengal cat and my registered exotic short hair cat to have kittens plus my registered Nigerian goats to have babies to make up for lost income during the slow period. We only hatch rare color and imported and SQ breeds of chicks this time of year along with selling clutches of eggs til things pick back up or we would be stuck with chicks everywhere. Just some friendly advice so u don't end up making some of the same mistakes I did when I first got started.

To make the most outta your bator try very rare types and breeds of birds that r SQ and in high demand so u can get more bang per chick from your bator and flock. Auction off eggs when u dont have chick orders to fill. Its a bit of an investment to get started with some but it def pays off in the long run and you wanna do it anyways so it makes sense to have a much more expensive flock especially quality and breeds of birds that hatcheries dont offer.

 

[cchardwick]

Shouldn't u keep the first round to see if the experiment worked at least until they r old enough to sex?

Also not at all trying to burst your bubble but as someone who takes orders and sales and hatches many chicks I wanted to offer a bit of advice. In my area for common pure breeds especially those that r not SQ birds and mixed breed large fowl chicks r a bit steep at $4 a chick for straight run. Even with paying shipping u could order all RIR pullets for example from many hatcheries and it would probably average less per chick then that, especially if they just went for an egg laying special. During the winter months u may find it hard to find buyers as many people prefer not to deal with raising chicks while its cold. I only hatch and sell SQ and very rare and imported breeds during those months. Also during the seasons that feed stores offer chicks sexed, u can purchase them cheaper then that at the feed store. I would highly recommend placing adds first and take orders and a list in advance b4 u begin hatching a ton of chicks to see what the demand is and what to set the price of your chicks at in your area so u don't end up stuck with a ton of chicks u cant even give away. Also during the normal season I have very good luck selling guinea keets and eggs as the demand has been very high for tick control. My colors r rare to very rare and I get alot more per keet then pure bred chicks if u don't factor in my rare imported lines of chicks and SQ birds. Guinea eggs r very fertile and tough and hatch easily so u might give that a try this spring. I also have turkeys and the demand for poults is only good for a few months in early spring and then kinda peters out toward the summer months for day old poults. During the off season like now I usually plan for my registered Bengal cat and my registered exotic short hair cat to have kittens plus my registered Nigerian goats to have babies to make up for lost income during the slow period. We only hatch rare color and imported and SQ breeds of chicks this time of year along with selling clutches of eggs til things pick back up or we would be stuck with chicks everywhere. Just some friendly advice so u don't end up making some of the same mistakes I did when I first got started.

To make the most outta your bator try very rare types and breeds of birds that r SQ and in high demand so u can get more bang per chick from your bator and flock. Auction off eggs when u dont have chick orders to fill. Its a bit of an investment to get started with some but it def pays off in the long run and you wanna do it anyways so it makes sense to have a much more expensive flock especially quality and breeds of birds that hatcheries dont offer.

Thanks for the advice, most of this I have considered except breeding Bengal cats! I've looked through the ads on Craigs List and most people are asking $4 a chick right now for day old chicks, straight run. And most people selling live way out east, I'm talking hours of driving away from civilization. No one is selling locally. Just a few weeks ago I saw some chicks for sale in the feed store, very unusual for this time of year. And they all sold out within days. Getting chicks this time of year is almost impossible so I think a small amount of birds would sell well. During the prime season I'd probably have to lower my prices. I think I should be able to sex the chicks by their wing feathers at 1-3 days old, at least I'm hoping. I'm not sure I want to get into exotics. I have the perfect system now, my chickens free range with my llamas. They have to be pretty big and a dark color to keep from getting eaten from the wild beasts and they can't fly over my 6 foot fence. It's really a low maintenance setup. This is really the best bird for this area. Anything bright and fancy would get eaten by the beasts. By the way, I'm not trying to really make money, I'm just trying to break even to eliminate my expenses! My llamas eat about $1,000 in hay per year, they chickens probably $300 per year. So my target is making that money back.

 

[Sally Sunshine]

Quote: location locaton he is in Colorado, CL pricing also varies by location, you can choose to place an ad in any CL area and ship too