How long have YOU been hatching eggs?

[fshinggrl]

Is this your first time? Have you been doing this for 20 years? How long have you been hatching your own eggs?

 

[rebelcowboysnb]

Getting close to 10 years. Been on here about that long too. Been hatching publicly online for over 2 years now.

 

[MountainChickenMama]

Working on my first hatch...lock down in 9 days, YIPEE!

 

[Mommysongbird]

First time, first batch, hoping that we have some fuzzy butts by Monday or Tuesday

 

[SDpeafowl]

I have been hatching for two years now! and my dad has been hatching since he was a kid.

 

[ThreeBoysChicks]

First batch was 36 years ago. Took a break for a while when I lived where I could not have chickens. Been back at it the last 10 years.

 

[snazzyboots]

i am finishing my first hatch. i am having so much fun with it

i have 12 out of 20 that made it to lock down. i could look at those fuzzy butts all day

 

[abritton77]

Bout 2 months, started with a homemade bator that would hold 42 eggs and now have built one that will hold 180 and a hatcher that will hold about 80.

 

[gryeyes]

I started hatching eggs last Summer and haven't stopped since. I got my first chicks from a feed store in October 2009. It was a fairly quick slide down the incubation chute, considering I dipped into this forum a couple of times and thought, "Oh, NO, that's not for me! All that worry about eggs quitting, humidity issues, whatever the heck "pipping" is and the worry about shrink-wrapping chicks. No way."

Then one of my newly-laying hens went broody and hatched a single chick.

Somehow, that brought me back to the incubation forum, instead of all the other tracks of chicken stuff. And I ran into a post mentioning a fool-proof incubator that only holds 7 eggs..... My very first hatch was 6 out of 7 eggs from that first incubator. Watching the chicks emerge from the shells triggered an immediate addiction to the miracle.

I now own 3 of those MiniAdvance 'bators and 3 Octagon20 units which hold 20 eggs. I've got 90 eggs incubating right now; all six incubators are full. There hasn't been a time when ALL six have been empty since last Summer.

 

[mississippifarmboy]

Got my first incubator, one of the round galvanized metal ones, around 35 years ago. I've helped with my Grandma's incubator and broody hens all my life.
Been hatching seriously for around 15 years now. I set anywhere from 30 to 80 eggs a week. The past few weeks it's been around 45 eggs a week.