I'm in incubator bliss!

[zoo2u]

Every summer our cochin gets broody and decides to sit on her eggs but all the other hens decide they will lay their eggs under her as well. This has happened about 4 times now. So Leia, our cochin ends up sitting on over 30 eggs all with different hatch dates. After the first few chicks hatch, she of course leaves the nest. i have tried in the past to incubate the remaining eggs and never seem to have much success. This summer, she was on the eggs for 4 weeks and nothing had hatched yet so i decided to help her out and set up the incubator. I put the 41 eggs that she was sitting on in the incubator on August 7th, the first chicks hatched on the 10th. i put the first 5 chicks under her and she has been happy. i have had chicks hatching every day since the 10th, number 27 hatched last night. i can't believe it! I didnt think it would work to keep the incubator running this long, barely turning eggs, opening the bator every day to get new chicks out. Amazing. I only had one rotten egg, one quitter and one chick that was completely fine but then died on day 2. Otherwise all others are great! Still 16 eggs to go, i am so curious what the final count will be but i am still excited by how well this all went!!!

 

[9 Feathers Farm]

It goes to show that eggs and chicks are more hardy than we give them credit for. Good luck on the rest.

 

[crj]

Wow, congratulations. I just had my first egg hatch about an hour ago. Waiting for the second one. This is so freaking exciting........

Can't wait to check in with you to see how many do hatch. Good luck.

 

[92caddy]

Sounds like alot of fun and goes to show how forgiving eggs and chicks can be.

A helpful tip for you when Leia wants to sit on eggs again, how ever many eggs you want her to have, take and mark those eggs with a marker, so you know which eggs are hers and which eggs were laid in with her that day so know which ones to gather that day. I do that when some of my hens or I block her off so the others cant get in with her.

 

[drumstick diva]

Poor Leia she is such an enabler, letting all those lazy hens dump eggs on her. You must have quite an assortment of chicks from goodness knows how many hens/roosters. Glad it worked out for you and Leia before she wore herself out.

 

[zoo2u]

Haha, yes she is an enabler! Great tip on the egg marking, will try that next time. Yes, i also agree that chicks and eggs are hardier than is sometimes thought. one of our babies that hatched 3 days ago even had part of her shell missing and she is 100% fine. Amazing. Waiting on the other 16, will keep you posted.

 

[laurenandtoby]

Just set our incubator up for the first time in a couple of years. We are inspired by your success and just DYING TO KNOW how those last 16 fared! Don't keep us perched on the edge of our nest, waiting to hear . . .

 

[gryeyes]

I am SO impressed that you are doing a multiple, staggered hatch like that! That's really impressive.

I'm still dithering on whether I want to hatch some of my OWN eggs (rather than continue to buy eggs to be shipped to me). Mine will all be mutts, but I have had one chick hatch under a broody which had an EE mom and dad. I might hatch some more of their eggs in an incubator.....

Right now I have another broody hen, and I'm letting her brood on 4 eggs, all of which will be mutts. I don't have any objection to mixed breeds - not at all! - but I kinda think if I'm going to do DELIBERATE incubation in an incubator, I'd rather add specific breeds and EEs to my flock.

Carl (Daddy and dominant rooster) is an EE, but I do have 3 more sexually active cockerels and they're all bantams, so if they got to any of these hens without Carl noticing and putting a stop to it, I may have some pretty interesting chicks from Shirley Welsummer's clutch.

And as for incubator bliss, I am currently setting up my guest bedroom as Incubator Heaven, with 3 Brinsea Mini Advance incubators (each holds 7 eggs), an R-Com incubator (holds 3 eggs), and *ahem* I just ordered a Brinsea Octagon 20 Advance.

 

[Mrs. Fluffy Puffy]

Ha ha!!

:YEAH!

Cohins are the best broodies ( besides silkies! )

I once had 2 cochins go broody on the same nest ( 20 eggs ) and all 20 eggs hatched and only 1 died!

 

[zoo2u]

Sorry, i completely forgot to subscribe to this so forgot to follow up! Well, i ended up losing the last 12 because i didn't catch a rotten egg in time. it exploded in the incubator, really ,really disgusting. guess i shouldn't have counted my eggs before they hatched!

But it was an impressive run for me, never done that before. We ended up keeping 8 of the babies and they are all different, really pretty! thanks for following.