All of my days have always had chickens in them. I was raised on a dairy farm and never saw an incubator until
I was 25 or so. This was in R.I. we averaged 500+ standing birds ,sold eggs, meat and milk . As conventional
wisdom went let nature take it's course and so it has gone for twenty yrs in this area. Until last year my flock was
totally self sustaining ,true free-ranging birds avg 50-80 or so. Last year adjoining lots were bought by speculators
and rented out ,all of a sudden my flock began to dwindle FAST! As or 1/1/13 I had #3 very cautious birds left, 2
great roosters and my best old English setter. Some years back I picked up a large incubator 300 egg capacity,
it needed a $.50 cent part and it hasn't been shut off for 3-4 months! I have had to egg-topsy a few hundred at
least!! I have long ago learned not to name live stock, but this is really bothering me. I have had made every con-
ceivable error ,killed the local natural predators as or just after they got my bittys that did hatch. Every piece of
info read deals primarily with hobby type bators or people who have them in their homes. Did I mention that a new
(flock?) of young hens were procured? They are being fed layer pellets and have chain link sleeping quarters, the
bulk are heavy breeds; reds, Barred Rocks, Auracana and mystery birds 16 in all. They lay between 8-12 eggs
a day ,pretty decent quality too, although the boys don't seem to be interested in the mixed breeds as yet. At first
eggs were washed and stored in an old oven till I got 75 or so dating only when placed in bator, this had limited
success. The upside of the first 8 weeks is my barn is snake free now. A dog and two geese work in unison for
the nocturnal threats (as well as the renters who presumably BUY their chicken now) "knock on wood".
I have gleaned lots of great info from BYC of late, invested in accurate instruments as well as rethought the loc-
ation of each. At this time the eggs are dated each day and put into cradles I made for the trays, I stink candeling
before 12 days. Read about "dry method" and would love to give it a whirl ! The thing is with up to 10 hatching
dates, how could this be done effectively ? If anyone could help me out on this it would be awesome ! Seems to
be everybody gives conflicting advice ,it's killing lots of peeps and my patience as they all assume that they are
experts (my peers) then they want eggs go figure. By the way I noticed washing and saving up eggs made them
shine and as I understand weakens the embryo, the reason they go directly into the bator wiped not washed. RR
I was 25 or so. This was in R.I. we averaged 500+ standing birds ,sold eggs, meat and milk . As conventional
wisdom went let nature take it's course and so it has gone for twenty yrs in this area. Until last year my flock was
totally self sustaining ,true free-ranging birds avg 50-80 or so. Last year adjoining lots were bought by speculators
and rented out ,all of a sudden my flock began to dwindle FAST! As or 1/1/13 I had #3 very cautious birds left, 2
great roosters and my best old English setter. Some years back I picked up a large incubator 300 egg capacity,
it needed a $.50 cent part and it hasn't been shut off for 3-4 months! I have had to egg-topsy a few hundred at
least!! I have long ago learned not to name live stock, but this is really bothering me. I have had made every con-
ceivable error ,killed the local natural predators as or just after they got my bittys that did hatch. Every piece of
info read deals primarily with hobby type bators or people who have them in their homes. Did I mention that a new
(flock?) of young hens were procured? They are being fed layer pellets and have chain link sleeping quarters, the
bulk are heavy breeds; reds, Barred Rocks, Auracana and mystery birds 16 in all. They lay between 8-12 eggs
a day ,pretty decent quality too, although the boys don't seem to be interested in the mixed breeds as yet. At first
eggs were washed and stored in an old oven till I got 75 or so dating only when placed in bator, this had limited
success. The upside of the first 8 weeks is my barn is snake free now. A dog and two geese work in unison for
the nocturnal threats (as well as the renters who presumably BUY their chicken now) "knock on wood".
I have gleaned lots of great info from BYC of late, invested in accurate instruments as well as rethought the loc-
ation of each. At this time the eggs are dated each day and put into cradles I made for the trays, I stink candeling
before 12 days. Read about "dry method" and would love to give it a whirl ! The thing is with up to 10 hatching
dates, how could this be done effectively ? If anyone could help me out on this it would be awesome ! Seems to
be everybody gives conflicting advice ,it's killing lots of peeps and my patience as they all assume that they are
experts (my peers) then they want eggs go figure. By the way I noticed washing and saving up eggs made them
shine and as I understand weakens the embryo, the reason they go directly into the bator wiped not washed. RR
