MaeIstrom
Songster
It started some 30 years ago when my parents tasked me with taking care of the family flock, mainly australorp/leghorn hybids for eggs, a few silkies for chick-rearing duties and an OEG bantam rooster who I saw maybe twice a year as he would pop in to say hello to the hens before flying off into the great blue yonder at the first sighting of a human. I started putting some of the silkies in the local show with no success until a kindly breeder gave me a pair of showline white Wyandottes that were 4 times larger than any chook I'd ever seen. I was mid-way through constructing a multi-pen setup when the family moved interstate to a house with no pets and I spent the next 20 years without chickens, roosters or eggs and only the occasional nervous breakdown when I went to purchase eggs from a supermarket to remind me life was ever any different.
Anyhoo fast-forward to 3 months ago and once again my parents are packing up to move to different place and they asked if I'd like their flock of 4 isa browns. My housemates advised against it since I'm renting and it would be be too much responsibility but we have half an acre of undeveloped land out back and I'd been watching permaculture videos on youtube so I thought "what the hell, they'll keep the grass down I'll chuck in some kitchen scraps every now and then and get free and guiltless eggs in return".
Fast forward to today and I currently have 2 incubators hatching 42 eggs, a mix of showline australorp, ameraucana and my own line of isa brown/aracauna hybrids which I have high hopes for. The Isa browns have been joined by 2 wyandottes and a pekin bantam and (until the council complained) a lavender aracauna rooster. I've built and rebuilt 2 separate coops, have gone through 3 feed suppliers to find the perfect mix and have recently taken to sharing my own dinner on the days I have no kitchen scraps because I hate disappointing them. At this point I calculate I will need to consume a dozen eggs every day for the next 50 years to recoup my costs and realize my dream of free eggs but why would you eat an egg when you can throw it in an incubator and make a baby chicken?
So yeah it might be time to consider I have a problem and am clearly in need of an intervention. I hope I've come to the right place but I suspect not.
Anyhoo fast-forward to 3 months ago and once again my parents are packing up to move to different place and they asked if I'd like their flock of 4 isa browns. My housemates advised against it since I'm renting and it would be be too much responsibility but we have half an acre of undeveloped land out back and I'd been watching permaculture videos on youtube so I thought "what the hell, they'll keep the grass down I'll chuck in some kitchen scraps every now and then and get free and guiltless eggs in return".
Fast forward to today and I currently have 2 incubators hatching 42 eggs, a mix of showline australorp, ameraucana and my own line of isa brown/aracauna hybrids which I have high hopes for. The Isa browns have been joined by 2 wyandottes and a pekin bantam and (until the council complained) a lavender aracauna rooster. I've built and rebuilt 2 separate coops, have gone through 3 feed suppliers to find the perfect mix and have recently taken to sharing my own dinner on the days I have no kitchen scraps because I hate disappointing them. At this point I calculate I will need to consume a dozen eggs every day for the next 50 years to recoup my costs and realize my dream of free eggs but why would you eat an egg when you can throw it in an incubator and make a baby chicken?
So yeah it might be time to consider I have a problem and am clearly in need of an intervention. I hope I've come to the right place but I suspect not.
Kiki...
it sounds like you've got a bad case of chicken math and probably a bit of the hatching bug as well.. lol, I'm suffering from both myself. 
