Incubators Anonymous

[ki4got]

see, my method for chicken math is that roosters don't count. broodies don't count. chicks under broodies don't count. actually chicks don't count. the only ones that count are the birds in the breeding pens. oh. but did I mention broodies don't count? oh and the free range girls don't count either, since I can't ever find their eggs...

so... by my estimate, I have... 12 birds. or so.

that's not counting the 22 roosters, 14 free range girls, 8 broodies and numerous youngsters who aren't laying yet. I'm sure I didn't miss anyone else.

 

[calichicken]

My 3 little 3 week old silkies look so funny all alone in my big 4'x4' brooder! LOL But, I will not complain that I sold their 15 EE friends Saturday!! Just means more room to hatch more babies!!!!

If I can get the Wellies and Jersey Giants in the outside hut to grow faster I can move them to the big bird coop and then the Silkies outside. My brooder would be free and I could hatch more eggs.

My last batch hatched July 15. My incubator's been sitting empty in the living room for over a month. My daughter's 4H is done, our coop is full, & we have no reason to hatch more. So sad....

On vacation, we drove by someone selling fertile Lavender orpington eggs for $15 a doz. I can't tell you how much I wanted to bring some aboard. (I spent more than 2xs that when I had them shipped!) If I only had a good reason.......

Faraday 40 I'm in the same boat at the moment needing a good reason....... Incubator sitting on work top just looking at me..... And someone local has eggs.... You only live once!!!!!!!!

That's the extent of my DH's understanding of BYC.

Exactly!!!

Plans!!!

Maybe, you need a small birds coop outside???

Then you could get to that hatching sooner, right?

Same here. =( Hope you make up, er, I mean find a very good reason to hatch some more soon!!!
We'll help you come up with a good reason.....Hmmm......Need more eggs? Build another coop and you'll have a coop to fill......??? I'm tryin'!

CLEARLY...there is a reason we are all on this thread

I love it!!!!!! Hatching and chickens are so much fun

 

[1zooman12]

Hello All,
I'll tell you a little trick about incubating. Chickens, and ducks too, go broody when their clutch threshold is reached. It is the combined pressure of the critical mass of eggs on their breast which gets them going. Collect all the eggs you want to hatch from the desired hen, duck, chicken, makes no difference. Store them a contrived environment at 52* fahrenheit at 50 % humidity. Turn them at least three times a day. Every 8 hours around the clock works best. They will remain viable for about 4 weeks. Then under a silkie place the starter eggs about which you care not. The threshold for silkies is about 10 medium hen's eggs. This varies a bit from hen to hen but once you learn it for a particular hen keep a note of it. Numbered leg bands are helpful if you have a few silkies. Sometimes to get the desired number of little ones I often run as many as 6 simultaneous incubating silkies each with 8 or so eggs. Why silkie moms? I find them to be the most dedicated and reliable chicken mothers of all breeds. Seldom does one of these abandon her babies to be. She must suffer great stress for this to happen. Most will go broody in 72 hours or less. Some of mine get turned on in about 24 hours! Once you find out what a particular hen's broody threshold is, you can turn them on like clockwork in subsequent incubation sessions as it is a constant in most individual silkie moms. Let the hen alone for about 3 days to make sure she is dedicated. Most silkies are very dedicated so that is generally not a problem. But one does not want to fool around with the precious primary target eggs. Remember that in many cases you may have paid a pretty penny to have them shipped to you. Incubating birds of all kinds do better if put in a quiet environment to get them going. Then one night one takes away the starter eggs and replaces them with the precious target eggs. In 21 days there are your baby chicks; 28 days for duckies! Duck eggs being larger reduces the number your silkie can handle. If you are working with duck eggs under the silkie watch for her to leave the nest to get a bite to eat, etc., and with a mist spray bottle lay a light coating of water mist on the eggs. Do not soak them or come any where close to doing it. Waterfowl eggs generally have a better hatch with the higher humidity you create. Spray them about twice a day; if you have to go away for a day don't worry it is not critical except at hatching time then you want three of the last incubation days with the mist procedure. Let us know how you do. I learned much of this good stuff as a young bird curator in a large city zoo; and am glad to share it in minute detail. We don't want anything to go wrong by missing a particular, do we? I really would like to know how you fare if you use this recipe.
Happy hatching!
Neal, the Zooman

 

[darkbluespace]

Look what I made... the top three racks tilt up and down. I am so excited, I have some Serama eggs in there already and will put duck eggs in tomorrow. I can't wait to fill it up!

 

[aliciaplus3]

Some of us are still over run even this late in the season.... but loving it.

 

[Vennessa0217]

Hello...I am an incubating addict...yesterday I fell off the wagon and started a batch of eggs in the incubator. 12 Delly eggs. Not sure if I will ever get back onto the wagon lol.

Any other addicts out there?

Admittedly I am a addict as well. Mine is quineafowl. As long as my girls keep laying them, I will incubate them. My husband and father-in-law think I am crazy, but we have the room to raise them through the year, so why not? Besides, who can resist those little fuzzy babies?

 

[Hens Solo]

Here's another of my redneck chicken inventions. My
chest freezer quit on me and I was supposed to take it to the dump. Here'e what I did with it. All I have to do is add a bulb and I have a brooder.

 

[Faraday40]

Here's another of my redneck chicken inventions. My
chest freezer quit on me and I was supposed to take it to the dump. Here'e what I did with it. All I have to do is add a bulb and I have a brooder.

Very clever.

I had a good chuckle b/c we have the same freezer! (Got it free from someone else's basement when they were cleaning out.) Still works, so no brooder here - yet. LOL

 

[Faraday40]

My incubator's still in storage (to prevent me from hatching until spring LOL). However, a few hens went broody so I did get some chicks in the fall. Here's my youngest serama chick at 9.5 weeks. Still rather small, so she'll have to stay that way to help me pretend that I have a fluffy little chick. (Thankfully, she's also silkied, so her feathers look like chick down.)

 

[LilyD]

Quote:
Nice to meet you Michelle. I agree with you the BYC auctions are hazardous. My husband said after the last hatch I did "This is the last one for the year right?" I said yeah yeah of course it's getting cold don't want to have chicks in the house all winter. Then I set 12 more eggs lol.