- Apr 5, 2013
- 3
- 0
- 7
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)
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.
