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pinkl72

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Dec 18, 2022
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Hi, I'm new to chicken herding. We have about 25 chickens since March of this year, 2022. We learn something new EVERY day. It will be our first winter with chickens so we are trying to prepare accordingly. Our 6yearold son showed a hen and a rooster at a couple county fairs and really enjoyed it and would like to show more. He also enjoys collecting eggs and sharing with neighbors. We have gold laced wyandotte or cochin or brahma or all three mixed :idunno, a booted bantam mille fleur rooster, some white, black, and blue silkies, and about one of every other breed because we like them all. They free range on a fenced acre with a couple homemade coops in the midwest where the weather changes for no reason at all. We just started incubating eggs to try to increase our flock for the spring but only hatched one out of about 12 so we learned a lot there too :rolleyes:. We had one of our oldest gold laced chicken (about 6months old) get broody late summer. We thought we would reduce her clutch size in the heat of the summer by marking her eggs and then taking any newly laid eggs, and that's when we learned we dont get to decide her clutch size, she will do that so only 2 hatched and none of the marked ones hatched. I'm hoping she will go broody again this spring along with the silkies and anyone else who volunteers to hatch some eggs because they do it better than I do :p any advice, tips, or constructive criticism is welcome and appreciated. Thanks for letting me join :thumbsup​
 
BlueBaby said:
Hello, and welcome! Good luck with your flock! You might try to incubate again toward's the spring when it's a bit warmer. Also, some brand's of incubator's work better then other's. What brand do you have?
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It's a Hethya egg incubator from amazon. The instructions were hard to follow so we thought it would auto adjust temps but we unknowingly had it on constant temperature mode so it stayed the same temp all 21 days. Furthermore, the eggs were older eggs, we received it in the mail and excitedly found some eggs to throw in and turned it on. We were hoping to hatch an egg from one of our bantams who was taken by an owl (saw it on video recording :() so by the time we received the incubator, the eggs were pretty aged. Unfortunately, the egg that hatched was not hers. My significant other is very motivated to hatch as many eggs as possible now, his reason being - they will be laying age or close by the spring. I would rather wait till the spring hoping the hens will hatch the eggs - work smarter not harder.
 

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pinkl72 said:
Hi, I'm new to chicken herding. We have about 25 chickens since March of this year, 2022. We learn something new EVERY day. It will be our first winter with chickens so we are trying to prepare accordingly. Our 6yearold son showed a hen and a rooster at a couple county fairs and really enjoyed it and would like to show more. He also enjoys collecting eggs and sharing with neighbors. We have gold laced wyandotte or cochin or brahma or all three mixed :idunno, a booted bantam mille fleur rooster, some white, black, and blue silkies, and about one of every other breed because we like them all. They free range on a fenced acre with a couple homemade coops in the midwest where the weather changes for no reason at all. We just started incubating eggs to try to increase our flock for the spring but only hatched one out of about 12 so we learned a lot there too :rolleyes:. We had one of our oldest gold laced chicken (about 6months old) get broody late summer. We thought we would reduce her clutch size in the heat of the summer by marking her eggs and then taking any newly laid eggs, and that's when we learned we dont get to decide her clutch size, she will do that so only 2 hatched and none of the marked ones hatched. I'm hoping she will go broody again this spring along with the silkies and anyone else who volunteers to hatch some eggs because they do it better than I do :p any advice, tips, or constructive criticism is welcome and appreciated. Thanks for letting me join :thumbsup​
Click to expand...
Welcome to BYC!! Merry Christmas! :)
 
pinkl72 said:
It's a Hethya egg incubator from amazon. The instructions were hard to follow so we thought it would auto adjust temps but we unknowingly had it on constant temperature mode so it stayed the same temp all 21 days. Furthermore, the eggs were older eggs, we received it in the mail and excitedly found some eggs to throw in and turned it on. We were hoping to hatch an egg from one of our bantams who was taken by an owl (saw it on video recording :() so by the time we received the incubator, the eggs were pretty aged. Unfortunately, the egg that hatched was not hers. My significant other is very motivated to hatch as many eggs as possible now, his reason being - they will be laying age or close by the spring. I would rather wait till the spring hoping the hens will hatch the eggs - work smarter not harder.
Click to expand...
I don't know anything about that brand that you have. What was the humidity level in your's set at? I have a Harris Farm Nurture Rite 360 that I've been doing my hatching's out of. I'm taking a break from it for now though. Good luck in your future of hatching!
 

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