Hi. I’m a newbie to BYC. But I’ve got to say this website has been a bit of a bible for me. I live on tiny island in Southeast England. At the moment I have 4 babies waiting to hatch and went into lockdown yesterday. Normally by day I tattoo people but with the worldwide lockdown, I became a housewife. 
So thats where me growing chicks started. My husband always wanted chickens after spending time with my parents, who used to have them. I thought it would be brilliant to get him day old chicks for his birthday, unfortunately these were hard to source, a bit like PPE.
. So I built him an incubator (after watching 100’s of you tube videos) and ordered eggs from eBay. I bought 6 but didn’t hold out much hope as the temperature kept fluctuating at first, I became a nervous wreck, diligently turning eggs every 5hrs, even through the night and was totally amazed at day 14 when I candelled them that 4 were living and you could see all the good signs (it took upto day 14 to find a good video of someone candling eggs to know what I was looking for properly). So now I am like an expectant mother hen. I just hope they get through the hatching process.
we live with my cockerpoo and my most annoying youngest son who also tattoos alongside myself, and between our children a hoard of grandchildren, who are very eggcited.
to give you a hint of what my sons are like, they thought it would be a good idea to surprise me with a delivery of lemon Brahma chicken eggs. (they told me they almost ordered an ostrich egg!!!) Which landed on my doorstep 2 days ago. I wasn’t impressed although, they thought it hilarious. Anyway I hope they do ok as I’ve had to put them in the same incubator, with high humidity As our only pet shop had a fire last wk and lost all their stock, so I can’t get another heat lamp anywhere atm. Oh and then my daughter in law thought would be a lovely surprise and bought two 1 day old chicks that she managed to find. thankfully We had the brooder ready due to the eggs. We only wanted 4 hens But I sense already, we’re going to end up with loads including giant brahmas. I just hope my babies that I’ve grown will be ok with the chicks so will have to watch them carefully. Im going to end up the mad chicken lady.
So thats where me growing chicks started. My husband always wanted chickens after spending time with my parents, who used to have them. I thought it would be brilliant to get him day old chicks for his birthday, unfortunately these were hard to source, a bit like PPE.
. So I built him an incubator (after watching 100’s of you tube videos) and ordered eggs from eBay. I bought 6 but didn’t hold out much hope as the temperature kept fluctuating at first, I became a nervous wreck, diligently turning eggs every 5hrs, even through the night and was totally amazed at day 14 when I candelled them that 4 were living and you could see all the good signs (it took upto day 14 to find a good video of someone candling eggs to know what I was looking for properly). So now I am like an expectant mother hen. I just hope they get through the hatching process.we live with my cockerpoo and my most annoying youngest son who also tattoos alongside myself, and between our children a hoard of grandchildren, who are very eggcited.
to give you a hint of what my sons are like, they thought it would be a good idea to surprise me with a delivery of lemon Brahma chicken eggs. (they told me they almost ordered an ostrich egg!!!) Which landed on my doorstep 2 days ago. I wasn’t impressed although, they thought it hilarious. Anyway I hope they do ok as I’ve had to put them in the same incubator, with high humidity As our only pet shop had a fire last wk and lost all their stock, so I can’t get another heat lamp anywhere atm. Oh and then my daughter in law thought would be a lovely surprise and bought two 1 day old chicks that she managed to find. thankfully We had the brooder ready due to the eggs. We only wanted 4 hens But I sense already, we’re going to end up with loads including giant brahmas. I just hope my babies that I’ve grown will be ok with the chicks so will have to watch them carefully. Im going to end up the mad chicken lady.
