Hello! I'll try to keep my intro brief.... but I can get windy sometimes. Sorry 
First, I love this site. I'm new to having my own chickens and ducks, but have a very experienced sister-in-law. She and my husband were raised with some farm animals and she has a good sized, assorted flock now. He has always wanted us to get some, but I have resisted. Well, we have a "camp" that we spend most weekends and several weeks throughout the year. Its less than an hour from our home, so we can go there any time. We built a nice sized pond a few years ago and I always wanted some ducks for the pond. So finally, my sister-in-law said she had some extra ducks and brought 3 to me. She also brought 5 roosters, because she was getting too many! We were not quite prepared for the roosters, but decided it would be good to determine the level of predators in the area. First week, we lost one rooster. No idea what happened to him. No signs of anything. She said he was kinda a loner anyway. Following week, lost another, with some feathers scattered about, but no carcass. By this time we had built a coop, but had no way to close it up at night. Third week, found a dead carcass -- from all indications, a racoon was the culprit. So we built Fort Knox of a run (with alot of help from this site) Final two roosters have been great for the past few weeks. Yeah! (The ducks, by the way, have been perfectly happy on the pond, except we've had to manually break the ice a few times to keep them an opening)
Then I decided I wanted to try to hatch some chicken eggs. I found an incubator from a local guy, and he already had 5 eggs in it that were on day 12. This was 3 days ago! I've been reading almost non-stop all weekend! I've candled them and 4 of the 5 appear to be normal and healthy, according to what I've read. The 5th one is only questionable because its very full and I just couldn't make out any movement. Dark shell. But I'm still hopeful for all 5.
My first basic question is because I didn't know the guy that I bought the incubator from, what should I be most concerned about? I don't mean to sound un-caring, but I really didn't expect that the 5 would survive the trip home. I figured I'd just start a batch on my own. But since they seem to be doing fine, I'm excited that I may have little chicks in just 1 week. I did see some chicks that he had recently hatched. They looked fine and well. He had 2 incubators and needed some money, which is why he sold one.
Thanks again to all the wonderful members of this site. I look forward to the fun and knowledge of BYC!
First, I love this site. I'm new to having my own chickens and ducks, but have a very experienced sister-in-law. She and my husband were raised with some farm animals and she has a good sized, assorted flock now. He has always wanted us to get some, but I have resisted. Well, we have a "camp" that we spend most weekends and several weeks throughout the year. Its less than an hour from our home, so we can go there any time. We built a nice sized pond a few years ago and I always wanted some ducks for the pond. So finally, my sister-in-law said she had some extra ducks and brought 3 to me. She also brought 5 roosters, because she was getting too many! We were not quite prepared for the roosters, but decided it would be good to determine the level of predators in the area. First week, we lost one rooster. No idea what happened to him. No signs of anything. She said he was kinda a loner anyway. Following week, lost another, with some feathers scattered about, but no carcass. By this time we had built a coop, but had no way to close it up at night. Third week, found a dead carcass -- from all indications, a racoon was the culprit. So we built Fort Knox of a run (with alot of help from this site) Final two roosters have been great for the past few weeks. Yeah! (The ducks, by the way, have been perfectly happy on the pond, except we've had to manually break the ice a few times to keep them an opening)
Then I decided I wanted to try to hatch some chicken eggs. I found an incubator from a local guy, and he already had 5 eggs in it that were on day 12. This was 3 days ago! I've been reading almost non-stop all weekend! I've candled them and 4 of the 5 appear to be normal and healthy, according to what I've read. The 5th one is only questionable because its very full and I just couldn't make out any movement. Dark shell. But I'm still hopeful for all 5.
My first basic question is because I didn't know the guy that I bought the incubator from, what should I be most concerned about? I don't mean to sound un-caring, but I really didn't expect that the 5 would survive the trip home. I figured I'd just start a batch on my own. But since they seem to be doing fine, I'm excited that I may have little chicks in just 1 week. I did see some chicks that he had recently hatched. They looked fine and well. He had 2 incubators and needed some money, which is why he sold one.
Thanks again to all the wonderful members of this site. I look forward to the fun and knowledge of BYC!
