Incubators Anonymous

[CashandTracy]

Ha, ha ha!! and SOMEBODY is going to have almost 40 chickens in the house all winter!!! Sorry, I couldn't resist that.. I have a bunch of eggs set too, due to hatch mid November.

(congratulations on the fertility rate!)

I know I'm a glutton for punishment. I got my first shipment of chicks this time last year, you thought I would have learned.

On that note I have 3 bantam eggs going into the new hovabator for lock down to check my hatch rate

 

[Foghornnmsprisy]

The post office won't deliver packages to our house because the neighbors dog bum rushes people like Cujo through the bushes. It's all a bluff, and a convincing one. So I don't put to much blame on them for that. But a miniature cock fight between fluffy yellow chicks is pretty frightening. I'm surprised you haven't be kicked out of the neighborhood for that kind of harmless chaos. What's next? Bunnies? Squirrels? A box full of eggs?

 

[Faraday40]

The post office won't deliver packages to our house because the neighbors dog bum rushes people like Cujo through the bushes. It's all a bluff, and a convincing one. So I don't put to much blame on them for that. But a miniature cock fight between fluffy yellow chicks is pretty frightening. I'm surprised you haven't be kicked out of the neighborhood for that kind of harmless chaos. What's next? Bunnies? Squirrels? A box full of eggs?

Our dog (an adorable mutt) makes very threatening growling noises when he wants to play. It doesn't help that he's an energetic 70lb dog. Our 100 lb black dog is the opposite -a snuggly lump. Although our dogs leave the chickens alone, they cannot stand squirrels or rabbits in the yard. From time to time the smaller guy catches & kills one or eats a nest of bunnies. The funny part is that he trained some of our chickens to attack squirrels. One of the chicks we sold over the summer now patrols the perimeter of her yard & goes after squirrels with such passion.

Life with animals is never boring & this "harmless chaos" just gives us more stories to share.

 

[darkbluespace]

Our dog (an adorable mutt) makes very threatening growling noises when he wants to play. It doesn't help that he's an energetic 70lb dog. Our 100 lb black dog is the opposite -a snuggly lump. Although our dogs leave the chickens alone, they cannot stand squirrels or rabbits in the yard. From time to time the smaller guy catches & kills one or eats a nest of bunnies. The funny part is that he trained some of our chickens to attack squirrels. One of the chicks we sold over the summer now patrols the perimeter of her yard & goes after squirrels with such passion.

Life with animals is never boring & this "harmless chaos" just gives us more stories to share.

A chicken that thinks it's a dog... priceless!

 

[Foghornnmsprisy]

It's been a hell of a day at our tiny farm. We witnessed our first egg being laid, ten minutes after hanging the nesting boxes. And I found two little heart beats through the shell of my incubating eggs. Plus my kid made honor roll. But to be honest I'm more excited about the chickens. I have Campine eggs and its hard to make out blood vessels. But I found the eye and heart. You can actually see their little hearts beating! And Mables first egg looks to be perfect. I was so looking forward to our first egg and now I'm not sure what to do with it. I feel like I should display it on the mantle or something. Between this and the time change I don't think I'm going to get any sleep tonight.

 

[Faraday40]

It's been a hell of a day at our tiny farm. We witnessed our first egg being laid, ten minutes after hanging the nesting boxes. And I found two little heart beats through the shell of my incubating eggs. Plus my kid made honor roll. But to be honest I'm more excited about the chickens. I have Campine eggs and its hard to make out blood vessels. But I found the eye and heart. You can actually see their little hearts beating! And Mables first egg looks to be perfect. I was so looking forward to our first egg and now I'm not sure what to do with it. I feel like I should display it on the mantle or something. Between this and the time change I don't think I'm going to get any sleep tonight.

Congrats on the great day!

I took all kinds of pics of that 1st egg.....in the nest, in my hand, in the egg basket, next to the pullet it came from, next to a store egg, etc. I was so excited one would think that I made the egg myself. After admiring it for a few days, we began the egg comparison experiment. Crack it open next to a store egg & notice how thick the shell is, how dark & firm the yolk is, how you can actually see the different layers of egg white, and of course how great it tastes.

Of course, you could also blow it out to make a Christmas ornament or something.




Store vs. backyard egg

 

[Foghornnmsprisy]

Oh good. So many ideas. I still need to get a pic of her egg in my vintage egg basket. We bought brown store eggs last week, so I put her egg next to those. I was surprised that her egg was bigger. Shes a Rhode Island Red and I assume that's what the store bought eggs were. I've been spoiling them with scratch. Maybe I should cut back. I've been watching egg embryo development videos on utube, over and over. Completely fascinating. My Roo is a few months younger than my hens. So I'm going to crack it open and see if he has become a "man" yet. Plus I'm going to try youre egg comparison idea. Thanks.

 

[wornoutmomto3]

I just found this post. I too fell off the band wagon early this summer. I hatched the first batch of eggs this summer just to see if I could. The kids and I had so much fun we have continued hatching clutch after clutch. (I homeschool so, I claim they are part of the lessons. They aren't) We are on our third "official" hatch right now. Unofficially this is either the fourth or fifth hatch. I don't count the others because they were silly mistakes like setting eggs at different times in the same incubator or trying to hatch both chicks and ducklings in the same 'bator. You know, the silly things people do in their ignorance. Yes, I still got chicks and ducklings with a fairly decent hatch rate, 40% hatch for ducklings and about 70% hatch for chicks. We have only done one duckling hatch so far. The second duckling hatch is set for next week. hehehe.
It just sounds better to say/admit to three "official" hatches. Than to admit I have become a hatching maniac who can't drive past a flea market or yard sale without stopping to check if they have items I could use to build a bigger better incubator. Or that I have somehow managed to convince my father-in-law to build me a super cool, high-tech, fully automated incubator.
I tried to quit, I really did. I even unplugged, cleaned out, and moved my special one-of-a-kind homemade 'bator out to the shed. I lasted two whole months without even thinking about hatching anymore babies. Then, my extra wonderful and loving hubby took me to check out this chicken farm. The birds were beautiful and I picked a lovely young hen to add to the flock. She was sweet and docile, the perfect hen. While at the farm it was brought to my attention that there would be some fertile eggs for sale in a few week.... I was hooked. I managed to put off getting the eggs for about three weeks, but I couldn't stop thinking about them. So here we are "official" hatch number three. And it has been a rough one.
I keep telling myself it needs to be the last hatch for the year. It is so hard to maintain a steady temp in the house this time of year. I know I should stop. I even convinced hubby that the kids "need" the experience of building their own incubator and hatching eggs that they chose. It's "educational," and a lesson plan is set for the spring of 2015. But, those hatching eggs keep calling my name.
*sigh* I have gone off the deep end and hubby just shakes his head in dismay. Oh well, maybe just one more hatch...

 

[Faraday40]

Wornoutmomto3:
Welcome & Congrats! Isn't it a blast! My last hatch was July 15th. I can't believe I've made it this far. I even had a poor little broody begging me for eggs. Talk about the guilt. I keep trying to convince myself that keeping chicks while there's snow on the ground is just too much work for me to handle. My next incubation class will start end of March, so I will do my best to hold out until then. I had to put my incubators in the attic.

Things to do:
shop for bargains on thermometers, hygrometers, egg trays, etc.
build another cooler incubator
research more incubator designs
refurbish an old incubator
repeat above but for brooders
make chick feeders & waterers
thumb through catalogs containing al the breeds you must own someday
enjoy pics & stories from this thread to get your baby chick fix

I passed my hatching obsession to my daughter. Between to two of us, DH is just doomed. She is now already planning another science project involving hatching eggs. Last year she compared hatch rates of shipped vs backyard eggs. This year she wants to include a broody hen vs diff types of incubators or experiment with training the chicks. (We trained a few over the summer & now have some great party games.) I love her ideas, but finding homes for all the "results" can be a challenge.

 

[Foghornnmsprisy]

So glad to see other people going egg wild. I decided to do this right. Lots of research and decision making. I spent a hundred bucks on the bator and egg turner. I have to keep a light blanket on it to keep the temp up. It has all the bells and whistles. So it lets me know when the temp is to high,to low and checks humidity. Working good so far. I have four RIR getting ready to lay. The Campine chicks should be six months behind them. And then this spring I will be getting Ancona six months after that. We spent way to much on the coup. I've made the hubbie swear he wouldn't tell people the total chicken costs to anyone. My parents will have a stroke if they find out. But the embryos inside my eggs have blown me away. We are doubling our chicken obsession with my daughters science project this year. We got third place last year on Monarchs. I want to watch the entire growing process of the embryos. But I'm concerned that I might make them go blind with to much candling. I'm lucky that my husband is happily riding along on this chicken crazy train were on.