Hi there

Hi there from riverina of nsw Australia, a couple of months ago the kids, wife and I decided we would keep a few chickens for ourselves and have since ended up with quite a few...

Being a scrap metal merchant part time and working in a fruit and veg shop we had the means to build a house for almost nothing and plenty of treats....

The house was built based around a large kids swingset frame I picked up in a load of scrap, combined with other steel from here and there, also with some mesh and roofing iron I picked up at the rubbish tip one afternoon.

We bougth a cheap 12 egg incubator from ebay and got some eggs from my father in law, he has a mixof isa browns and white leghorns in his flock, the leghorn being the only rooster, of the 12 we put in we had some issues with the incubator (and a couple of dodgy eggs) and got 6 chickswhile that lot of eggs were in at day 7, next door had a broody sitting on one egg that she didnt want sitting so I took that egg and plonked it in the incubator as well... I'm not sure what breeds are in that one, but we have a pretty meaty stripy chick wandeirng around!


While all the eggs were in the incubator we got impatient and bought 4 12 week old pullets from Brian larkin poultry, they have just started laying now and we are getting a few eggs now. They are supposed to be commercial crossbred reds, but one is really light, who knows, she's the best layer of the lot and loved cuddles from day one from the kids...

The chicks are at 6 weeks old now, since about 4 weeks they lived outside inside the house we built within a large rabbit cage until the last couple of days where we have let them out suringthe day with the others, the chicks are like little puppies and jump all over us when we go inside to talk to them!

in the last trip to the inlaws we picked up some eggs again, (7 I think, I cant remember) but had other dramas with the incubator but now have 3 very healthy little babies a week old in the brooder inside the dining room


Things we have learnt about incibating eggs for ourselves....
-cheap incubators are not as good as expensive ones (janoel 12, was $75 from ebay, would maybe fit 12 bantam eggs if lucky)
-we got a better result out of manually turning our eggs than using the auto turner
- always keep an eye on water level, (we lost a couple out of the last lot when I forgot to check for 3 days and dried the whole incubator out)


all in all the kids are having fun, we currently have 14 healthy birds and have to build a second house. being from a quite rural family down the track we would like to grow some meat birds but thats for the future...

Up next - a good friend of mine from several hours away wants us to try and incubate her some guinea fowl eggs and raise them enough to live on her block, she isnt due for a visit for a while but until then the incubator is cleaned, stored and ready to go....

Cheers,
Joe.