I think my bator will be running for a long time!

[gvntofly05]

My roos finally started breeding a week ago. I have been paying close attention over the last few days of which hens I have seen them breed. Well this morning I collected the first 6 eggs that were laid and threw them into the bator since it's already running anyway with some bantam eggs.

I know I should be cracking eggs and checking for fertility but I would feel bad if I cracked open one that was fertile knowing I could have set it. I know once most of the eggs are fertile this won't bother me anymore.

If when I candle nothing is developing, I'll just pull the eggs and no harm done. I'm going to add 6 more next Sunday and then the following Sunday and so on until I get some developers! Hatching shipped eggs or someone else's egg is one thing but the thought of hatching my own babies from my flock is so awesome! Now I just need my BCM pullets to start laying! They are squatting for me so it should be soon!

My hubby had me on a no hatching time out but now that the roos have started doing their job I think he is just as excited as me!

 

[MiniBeesKnees]

How are you going to handle lockdown on the staggered hatch? I'm curious as I have added eggs to my incubator too.

 

[gvntofly05]

Quote:
I'm not sure yet. I know others have done it, so I was going to start researching that in a few days.

I may not have to worry about it though since I don't even know what my fertility rate is of my own eggs. The bantams have 14 days left so they may be out before I even get any of mine developing!

 

[JCoogle]

I have had my bator running alomost nonstop since January. I set eggs every four days so that my hatcher is empty for lockdown. The way i handeled the staggered hatches is I built a hatcher out of a old fish tank i had laying around. It does a great job for me.