I have a bad allergy to chick/bird dander. I used to have a GQF Sportsman but eventually was forced to sell it due to becoming very sick during and after hatches. Having it in a second bedroom with the door always closed did not help at all. There's no way I can construct an outdoor shelter that holds a relatively stable temperature for an incubator either.
It was so nice having an incubator because I have ongoing projects and every one knows to do projects have to set as many eggs possible to get the few keeper chicks. Ever since selling the incubator I've been struggling with this part.. having to wait until a hen goes broody and then the number of eggs set is very limited- 15 under a hen vs, 50-100 at a time..... And when the chicks hatch there's either none or just one or two keeper chicks compared to 10-20 out of incubator to keep and raise.
So right now I am thinking I might have to give up and cull completely some projects but geeze.. had been working on them for years by now so that's hard.
But before I do that, want to ask if there are others in similar(no incubator) situations and how did you handle the setting eggs part?
I don't really want to keep hens used solely for setting as I want to keep bird numbers to a minimum and it's hard to manage broody hens unless she has whole pen to herself with only one nest.... which takes away room for other birds.
It was so nice having an incubator because I have ongoing projects and every one knows to do projects have to set as many eggs possible to get the few keeper chicks. Ever since selling the incubator I've been struggling with this part.. having to wait until a hen goes broody and then the number of eggs set is very limited- 15 under a hen vs, 50-100 at a time..... And when the chicks hatch there's either none or just one or two keeper chicks compared to 10-20 out of incubator to keep and raise.
So right now I am thinking I might have to give up and cull completely some projects but geeze.. had been working on them for years by now so that's hard.
But before I do that, want to ask if there are others in similar(no incubator) situations and how did you handle the setting eggs part?
I don't really want to keep hens used solely for setting as I want to keep bird numbers to a minimum and it's hard to manage broody hens unless she has whole pen to herself with only one nest.... which takes away room for other birds.
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