Incubators Anonymous

[darkbluespace]

I have my first 3 Silkie eggs in my incubator and the more I read about them, the more I want to get more eggs before Winter... I swear I've lost my mind. I did inquire about a dozen Ancona eggs and I'm at the top of the list! I am putting Easter eggs out to see if any hen might possibly go broody... It's worth a try right?!! This is why I need more Silkies!

 

[darkbluespace]

Awwww...congrats to you and your super broody duck who is probably thrilled to have some babies to care for

Thank you... this may be her first time, she seems a little confused, but she loves her babies! I'm in love too! Here they are..

 

[sonderah]

Today is the day! My flock has THE test that their lives depend on them passing!!! I'm so nervous about the possibility of depop! Plz pray for my babies! Its not their fault I was ignorant!!!

 

[Bazy]

Quote:
Best of luck doesn't sound right...Just not positive enough..so, I will say that I hope all your hard work pays off and all your testing is passed with flying colors!!..and aw, heck, GOOD LUCK!

 

[LindaB220]

I know our post office didn't read the box at all. The breeder who carefully packaged & drove the eggs straight to her post office wrote: HOLD FOR PICK UP with my ph# on the box. My PO of course threw them on the truck b/c I saw "out for delivery" when I checked the status online. I called the PO & they said it should arrive at my house soon. (.....but the box was scanned at 6am & my mail had already come.) The post master actually caught up with the truck & personally delivered the box to me. The eggs got an extra 8 hours in a bouncy truck, but they did make here. I got a 60% hatch rate.

The second time I ordered eggs (from a different & closer source) they were dropped off on my front porch on a rainy day. The "Hold for pick Up" was not as obvious & kind of blurred. I'm not sure how long they were outside. That hatch was my worst ever! Every air cell was detached & rolled around like a bubble. I did everything I could to increase my odds. 8 out of 12 were alive on day 18, but only one hatched.

Perhaps if we write something generic like "Fragile scientific materials" the boxes will get better treatment. No one would want to spill or break an unknown substance.

I've heard that Pa PO supply area is so huge that they can't get anything through alive. So some people started sending glass jars of honey and noting it on the package. They won't send it on the ramps because if glass breaks the honey will get into their motors. I told my seller in Pa to do that on my replacement order and he wouldn't because it might not be ethical. So he wrote FRAGILE on the outside. That's it. Total scrambled eggs. Not broken, just scrambled. Sorry, Charlie, won't be buying from you again.

 

[Faraday40]

Because the excitement of getting new or rare birds is so addictive, the shipping of eggs will continue. What a wonderful age we live in that we can have fertile eggs delivered with the click of a mouse! So what are some other things - besides honey, eggs, & chicks - that you've ordered online???

The teachers at our school soon learned never to open any boxes shipped to my department. (Mostly the dissection specimens & chemicals kept them away.) The best was this summer when I ordered live Giant Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches for a camp. The poor bugs were sent to the wrong city & had an extra day in the mail. Things were fine, but I still laugh at the image of some unsuspecting old lady receiving my package by mistake & opening it to discover giant roaches inside.

(No this did not actually happen. It's just how my mind works at times.)

 

[calichicken]

Thank you... this may be her first time, she seems a little confused, but she loves her babies! I'm in love too! Here they are..

Oh...so adorable!!! I love seeing momma's with their babies

Hopefully being a first time mom she will do a great job

 

[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

 

[Faraday40]

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

 

[Sustained]

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

I'm going to give this a try if any of my other hens go broody. Thank you for sharing!