- Apr 5, 2013
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Greetings fellow BYC-ers,
Recently (meaning in february of this year) I purchased 20 beautiful chicks. I have 10 australorps, 5 barred rocks, and 4 Ameraucanas/ easter eggers(sadly one of them died so I only have 4). I don't know if the Ameraucanas are true so I call them easter eggers but the feed store is bent on calling them Ameraucanas. After my blue ameraucana/ easter egger chick died I bought 5 more chicks. 2 white leghorns, a red laced wyandotte, a delaware, and a broiler. The newer chicks are two weeks younger than the older ones but I keep them together with no problems. Though I ordered strictly all female chicks, I happen to have a barred rock rooster, a ameraucana/ easter egger rooster, and an australorp who looks suspicious. Though I am not planning on keeping these rooster I want to breed them with my hens (once they are of age, that is) but I don't think I will get a broody hen and my guinea fowl hen only sits on her own eggs. So I want to use an incubator I have to hatch said eggs. The thing about my incubator is that it is missing a fan and I have never had successful hatches. I don't have the money to buy a new one so I need help on getting it to work.
The incubator is a still air incubator. Those large square ones with two rectangular window slots. Its a manual turner one and nhas a wired bottom which sits above a little pool where you add water. So the water is supposed to evaporate and moisturize the eggs that way.
My question is, what do I do to hatch the eggs when they come. Once I put my guineas eggs in the incubator to hatch them and it kind of worked. The embryo formed and the baby was there. I candled the eggs on the third day and saw it. After that I left the eggs and turned them twice a day but after awhile they just seemed to die. So I cracked one open and found a tiny baby inside (it was already dead before I cracked it open). I decided there was hope for the other eggs so i left them in the incubator. 18 days later they are still the same. I think what I did wrong was setting the incubator up in my patio where at night it gets cold and it was on a table where my cats always jumped on, so the eggs probably were moving a lot. Please give me tips. I would really like to hatch mutt chicks.
I have two separate flocks and I plan on breeding the roosters with both. My first flock has year olds and it consist of 8 healthy hens. The breeds are barred rock, buff orpington, australorp, buff laced polish, rhode island red, silver laced wyandotte, salmon faverolle, and a white leghorn. The younger flock I posted above what it consists of. I really want some mixed babies.
Thank you for your time and help.
This is what one of the Australorps look like (though mine are fully feathered)![](https://www.backyardchickens.com/content/type/61/id/5639778/width/350/height/700)
This is what my barred rock cockerel Fandral The Dashing looks like.
This is my older flock.
I would also like to see pictures of some mixed chickens between the roosters and hens i have if anyone has any.
Thank you.
Recently (meaning in february of this year) I purchased 20 beautiful chicks. I have 10 australorps, 5 barred rocks, and 4 Ameraucanas/ easter eggers(sadly one of them died so I only have 4). I don't know if the Ameraucanas are true so I call them easter eggers but the feed store is bent on calling them Ameraucanas. After my blue ameraucana/ easter egger chick died I bought 5 more chicks. 2 white leghorns, a red laced wyandotte, a delaware, and a broiler. The newer chicks are two weeks younger than the older ones but I keep them together with no problems. Though I ordered strictly all female chicks, I happen to have a barred rock rooster, a ameraucana/ easter egger rooster, and an australorp who looks suspicious. Though I am not planning on keeping these rooster I want to breed them with my hens (once they are of age, that is) but I don't think I will get a broody hen and my guinea fowl hen only sits on her own eggs. So I want to use an incubator I have to hatch said eggs. The thing about my incubator is that it is missing a fan and I have never had successful hatches. I don't have the money to buy a new one so I need help on getting it to work.
The incubator is a still air incubator. Those large square ones with two rectangular window slots. Its a manual turner one and nhas a wired bottom which sits above a little pool where you add water. So the water is supposed to evaporate and moisturize the eggs that way.
My question is, what do I do to hatch the eggs when they come. Once I put my guineas eggs in the incubator to hatch them and it kind of worked. The embryo formed and the baby was there. I candled the eggs on the third day and saw it. After that I left the eggs and turned them twice a day but after awhile they just seemed to die. So I cracked one open and found a tiny baby inside (it was already dead before I cracked it open). I decided there was hope for the other eggs so i left them in the incubator. 18 days later they are still the same. I think what I did wrong was setting the incubator up in my patio where at night it gets cold and it was on a table where my cats always jumped on, so the eggs probably were moving a lot. Please give me tips. I would really like to hatch mutt chicks.
I have two separate flocks and I plan on breeding the roosters with both. My first flock has year olds and it consist of 8 healthy hens. The breeds are barred rock, buff orpington, australorp, buff laced polish, rhode island red, silver laced wyandotte, salmon faverolle, and a white leghorn. The younger flock I posted above what it consists of. I really want some mixed babies.
Thank you for your time and help.
This is what one of the Australorps look like (though mine are fully feathered)
I would also like to see pictures of some mixed chickens between the roosters and hens i have if anyone has any.
Thank you.