Incubators Anonymous

[Sustained]

I know.. I had a few last eggs from my frizzle hen that quit and then the emptiness hit me! I do have 7 ducklings in my living room in a baby pool so I don't feel too forlorn... I have 3 indoor brooders actually

I think the duckies will have to go out sooner rather than later but fortunately it has been pretty warm out.

I got my last Silkie eggs locally, which I love to do and she has lavender, which I really want, so I will see if I can get any eggs from her, but that is a pretty good price for 18 eggs. I paid that much for my last shipped duck eggs and just hatched 2 but I think it was worth it. My Silkies are still little but one of them did a full on rooster crow at 4 days old so I am still working on acceptance, hoping the other is a hen.

I would love to know how all your shipped Silkie eggs do!

I still need to finish our pen for the heritage turkeys that I plan to get next month. We sold our peafowl to make room for them. 3 hens and a tom should lay about 300 fertile eggs a year! We are pretty excited about that!

How is the baby pool in the living room going? I would be tempted to do the same but I have a 1 and 2 year old that are still in the process of learning to be gentle with animals. My ducklings are very timid so I've been spending as much time as I can next to their brooder. When do you move ducklings outside? I'm guessing they will need a heat lamp still? I've been wondering how old they should be before I introduce them to their new home. I'm in no hurry yet though. I just can't take the idea of having any of my animals be afraid of me lol

I'm so jealous! I wish I could find someone local with silkie eggs this time of year! I had some pretty severe temp spikes that killed almost all my eggs in lockdown last time I had silkies in. I did get my little paint 'Stars' to hatch right before the temp spikes. She's pretty spoiled rotten because she was an only. Are you going for specific colors? I'm trying for one of every color. I just LOVE silkies. I'm suspecting that my 2 oldest ones are both roos. I only plan to try to keep one roo and I'm extremely attached to both so I'm really hoping I'm wrong! Is it common for them to let loose with a crow so young???

I wish mine had so I had a definite warning

I will let you know how the shipped batch does. I have a possibility of getting splash, blue, buff, white, black, gray, porcelin and lavender.

Oh wow! That's a lot of fertile eggs lol what color are the turkeys? I just saw a pic of some pure whites and they're beautiful. I've never had turkeys. My parents got some when I was a kid and the only thing I remember about them is all the predators they attracted. Are you getting them for the eggs? Or meat too? They're on my wish list for when we finally have a place with more land. I want them for both though.

 

[darkbluespace]

How is the baby pool in the living room going? I would be tempted to do the same but I have a 1 and 2 year old that are still in the process of learning to be gentle with animals. My ducklings are very timid so I've been spending as much time as I can next to their brooder. When do you move ducklings outside? I'm guessing they will need a heat lamp still? I've been wondering how old they should be before I introduce them to their new home. I'm in no hurry yet though. I just can't take the idea of having any of my animals be afraid of me lol

I'm so jealous! I wish I could find someone local with silkie eggs this time of year! I had some pretty severe temp spikes that killed almost all my eggs in lockdown last time I had silkies in. I did get my little paint 'Stars' to hatch right before the temp spikes. She's pretty spoiled rotten because she was an only. Are you going for specific colors? I'm trying for one of every color. I just LOVE silkies. I'm suspecting that my 2 oldest ones are both roos. I only plan to try to keep one roo and I'm extremely attached to both so I'm really hoping I'm wrong! Is it common for them to let loose with a crow so young???

I wish mine had so I had a definite warning

I will let you know how the shipped batch does. I have a possibility of getting splash, blue, buff, white, black, gray, porcelin and lavender.

Oh wow! That's a lot of fertile eggs lol what color are the turkeys? I just saw a pic of some pure whites and they're beautiful. I've never had turkeys. My parents got some when I was a kid and the only thing I remember about them is all the predators they attracted. Are you getting them for the eggs? Or meat too? They're on my wish list for when we finally have a place with more land. I want them for both though.

The baby pool is going pretty well though they will outgrow it pretty soon. I could put cardboard around the outside to keep them in longer... but they are getting a bit stinky! I have a 10 yr old and I still have to be on him a bit about how he handles them!

I am trying this because my first 6 Anconas I hatched are scared of us... I had them in my back bathroom and though I tried to handle them often... that seemed to scare them more! This time, as soon as most ducklings could get around reasonably well, we took them all out and let them follow us around the living room, then the house and then outside. We call them and they scurry to catch up with us. I am hoping that by taking them outside for stretches they will learn how to forage for food in the grass. My big Anconas are pretty good foragers, but the ducklings my Muscovy is raising for me, while they are not too skittish, have not learned how to forage much, but how to beg instead! Not good!

I think by letting them follow us around like they naturally do with a mama duck they have imprinted on us and they are more relaxed with us.

Sorry you lost your Silkie eggs... that sucks! I don't know if I can get mine locally right now... I was just trying to get myself organized before I go looking but I know she has some eggs. I really want lavender and black. I got dark grey/silver and a silver partridge I think. Crowing so early is not normal but apparently my little guy is not the first.... though it was quite shocking, he only did it one day.

I did find some quail eggs and so I will probably have to try hatching some of them!

We want the turkeys mostly to sell hatching eggs and poults. We have had chickens for years but actually have yet to butcher anything. We only started hatching this last year but are pretty serious about it! Of course, the more boys we have, the more I think about eating them ourselves if we can't sell them. We would like to raise a turkey to eat, we are just slowly working our way in that direction.

 

[Sustained]

The baby pool is going pretty well though they will outgrow it pretty soon. I could put cardboard around the outside to keep them in longer... but they are getting a bit stinky! I have a 10 yr old and I still have to be on him a bit about how he handles them!

I am trying this because my first 6 Anconas I hatched are scared of us... I had them in my back bathroom and though I tried to handle them often... that seemed to scare them more! This time, as soon as most ducklings could get around reasonably well, we took them all out and let them follow us around the living room, then the house and then outside. We call them and they scurry to catch up with us. I am hoping that by taking them outside for stretches they will learn how to forage for food in the grass. My big Anconas are pretty good foragers, but the ducklings my Muscovy is raising for me, while they are not too skittish, have not learned how to forage much, but how to beg instead! Not good!

I think by letting them follow us around like they naturally do with a mama duck they have imprinted on us and they are more relaxed with us.

Sorry you lost your Silkie eggs... that sucks! I don't know if I can get mine locally right now... I was just trying to get myself organized before I go looking but I know she has some eggs. I really want lavender and black. I got dark grey/silver and a silver partridge I think. Crowing so early is not normal but apparently my little guy is not the first.... though it was quite shocking, he only did it one day.

I did find some quail eggs and so I will probably have to try hatching some of them!

We want the turkeys mostly to sell hatching eggs and poults. We have had chickens for years but actually have yet to butcher anything. We only started hatching this last year but are pretty serious about it! Of course, the more boys we have, the more I think about eating them ourselves if we can't sell them. We would like to raise a turkey to eat, we are just slowly working our way in that direction.

My ducklings are already a bit stinky. Now I'm concerned lol. And I can't believe what a mess they make! They've covered the brooder walls with their food already from playing in it with the water. I was cleaning it earlier and giving them a very stern talking to about it. Well it went more something like 'It's a good thing you guys are cute because I don't clean poo and food spatter off walls for just anyone!'

Oh how cute!! I would love to have them following me around the house but how do you deal with the poo? I'm no seamstress but I've been considering ducky diapers. I have carpet through most of the house which I find frustrating (I think carpet is for people with no kids or pets). I guess first I need to convince the poor things that I'm not going to try to eat them. They're very slowwwwly coming around. Hmmm that's good to know about teaching them to forage. I thought it would be an instinct like my chickens. Although my barred rocks are pretty pathetic about treats. They forage very well but after awhile they all sit at my sliding patio door and stare through it at me waiting lol.

I'd love to have a silver partridge. I have a standard partridge, a white, and a paint right now. I know splash is fairly common but I just love the look and am really hoping to get one this round. Do either of your silkies make turkey noises? My partridge is only about 5 weeks old but is already starting to give up the baby peeping and is making a lot of sounds that I can only compare to turkeys. The gobbling sound I guess. Since these are my first silkies I'm not familiar with all the sounds they make and it shocked me when he/she started doing it.

That's awesome! What kind of quail? I hatched some golden Italian coturnix almost 3 weeks ago. I love them but it turns out 3 are roos and only 1 is a hen LOL I've had a run of excessive roos lately. Even my ducklings were 3:1. I keep joking that my brooders are overflowing with testosterone

 

[darkbluespace]

My ducklings are already a bit stinky. Now I'm concerned lol. And I can't believe what a mess they make! They've covered the brooder walls with their food already from playing in it with the water. I was cleaning it earlier and giving them a very stern talking to about it. Well it went more something like 'It's a good thing you guys are cute because I don't clean poo and food spatter off walls for just anyone!'

Oh how cute!! I would love to have them following me around the house but how do you deal with the poo? I'm no seamstress but I've been considering ducky diapers. I have carpet through most of the house which I find frustrating (I think carpet is for people with no kids or pets). I guess first I need to convince the poor things that I'm not going to try to eat them. They're very slowwwwly coming around. Hmmm that's good to know about teaching them to forage. I thought it would be an instinct like my chickens. Although my barred rocks are pretty pathetic about treats. They forage very well but after awhile they all sit at my sliding patio door and stare through it at me waiting lol.

I'd love to have a silver partridge. I have a standard partridge, a white, and a paint right now. I know splash is fairly common but I just love the look and am really hoping to get one this round. Do either of your silkies make turkey noises? My partridge is only about 5 weeks old but is already starting to give up the baby peeping and is making a lot of sounds that I can only compare to turkeys. The gobbling sound I guess. Since these are my first silkies I'm not familiar with all the sounds they make and it shocked me when he/she started doing it.

That's awesome! What kind of quail? I hatched some golden Italian coturnix almost 3 weeks ago. I love them but it turns out 3 are roos and only 1 is a hen LOL I've had a run of excessive roos lately. Even my ducklings were 3:1. I keep joking that my brooders are overflowing with testosterone

We use a half gallon milk jug on it's side with a hole cut out for duckling water. It is the only thing that keeps the water reasonably under control. I can't cut the hole too big or they'll climb right in. They still poop everywhere and make a huge mess though! This time I put puppy training pads in the baby pool and that was fine till they started to try to eat them yesterday. We fortunately have wood and tile floors so we can easily clean up after them. Carpet would be a pain. Maybe just take them out in your kitchen if you don't have carpet in there. We took ours outside after a few days. As long as they don't get too wet they can be out when it is pretty cold. Foraging is instinctual for them but my Muscovy is too lazy and is used to just being fed and I see she is passing that bad habit on to her ducklings. I was thinking she would be a great broody to raise lots of ducklings for me... oh well. I probably have enough girls by now anyway.

I don't notice my Silkies making any noise, they are in a brooder with a bunch of Seramas and are pretty quiet but I can barley keep track of how old everyone is.

I'll probably hatch some standard Coturnix unless I find some more interesting eggs... do quail lay through the winter? From all my birds I have about an egg or two a day! I want to try hatching quail in any case. I like the snowflake quail too. I hope you start getting more girls! That hardly seems fair!! I seem to get about 50/50 or an extra girl so I can't complain.

 

[TeaChick]

I unstacked the extra eggs and gave them to a hen. Please help me hope she goes broody on them and a lot of them make it and that a lot of those are girls and that a lot of those lay me green or blue eggs...

 

[Sustained]

We use a half gallon milk jug on it's side with a hole cut out for duckling water. It is the only thing that keeps the water reasonably under control. I can't cut the hole too big or they'll climb right in. They still poop everywhere and make a huge mess though! This time I put puppy training pads in the baby pool and that was fine till they started to try to eat them yesterday. We fortunately have wood and tile floors so we can easily clean up after them. Carpet would be a pain. Maybe just take them out in your kitchen if you don't have carpet in there. We took ours outside after a few days. As long as they don't get too wet they can be out when it is pretty cold. Foraging is instinctual for them but my Muscovy is too lazy and is used to just being fed and I see she is passing that bad habit on to her ducklings. I was thinking she would be a great broody to raise lots of ducklings for me... oh well. I probably have enough girls by now anyway.

I don't notice my Silkies making any noise, they are in a brooder with a bunch of Seramas and are pretty quiet but I can barley keep track of how old everyone is.

I'll probably hatch some standard Coturnix unless I find some more interesting eggs... do quail lay through the winter? From all my birds I have about an egg or two a day! I want to try hatching quail in any case. I like the snowflake quail too. I hope you start getting more girls! That hardly seems fair!! I seem to get about 50/50 or an extra girl so I can't complain.

I'm going to give the milk jug a try. I have to refill their waterer several times a day lol it's cute now but when they're all bigger I'm betting I will find it much less cute and much more work.

Do you have any kind of a heat lamp on your pool? I have 3 old large toyboxes that I use for brooders and they're a bit heavy but they clean up easily which is nice. Using a pool is really a good idea for a brooder. I may haul out the kids pool that I leaned in the shop and make it a play area for during the day and put it in the living room. DH may kill me but what a great way to exercise them when it's too cold to go outside! Hmmmmm.....

Quail slow down during the winter without artificial lighting. I think it may vary a little from breed to breed. The snowflakes are bobwhites and I love them! They're on my wish list. Gamble quail are cool looking too. Ha I would take 50/50! I'm listing the extra males on craigslist. Normally I would just raise them up and eat them but I'm finding that it's a little harder to do when I spent the time incubating them and watching them hatch.

DH mentioned having me hatch meat birds but I was thinking about it and I may just start giving my broody hens the meat bird eggs to limit my attachment and give my broodies some eggs to make them happy.

Holy cow you must get quite the pile of eggs! lol. My barred rocks are great layers and up until about 2 weeks ago I was getting an egg from each of them almost every day. I really don't need any more egg layers of any kind but... the addiction has taken over.

I started freezing all the extras during the summer for during the winter months when they quit laying and it's working out really well. I guess I will just have to find more recipes that call for eggs lol

 

[TeaChick]

My hen seems to be in a pre-brood. I'm going to give her two more days to get into a good, deep broody mood.

If she doesn't, then I'm going to have to stack them back up in the incubator.

 

[calichicken]

My hen seems to be in a pre-brood. I'm going to give her two more days to get into a good, deep broody mood.

If she doesn't, then I'm going to have to stack them back up in the incubator.

Here's to cheering for a broody

My girl is thinking about it but hasn't gotten there yet!

 

[ChickyChickens]

I am getting my 2 incubators today!!! The JN-48 and the JN-92!!Together they can hatch 140 chicks or they can hatch 48 chicks a week

 

[PD-Riverman]

I am getting my 2 incubators today!!! The JN-48 and the JN-92!!Together they can hatch 140 chicks or they can hatch 48 chicks a week

Is it a JN-92 or JN-96---your numbers are not adding up. How would you set them up to possibly hatch 48 chicks per week?