jbhfmnn
Hatching
- Apr 21, 2017
- 7
- 0
- 4
Hi; I've been raising chickens and ducks for the past year. My young kiddos show in 4H. We don't spend the money to buy the greatest chickens as of right now; they just choose their favorites from our coop.
We decided to get into chickens after my son had many issues eating store bought foods. He has Hirschsprung's disease and currently is sporting an ileostomy. He is 3.
We butchered around 50 or so last summer and plan to do another 50 Cornish x this summer. We have an assortment of egg layers; around 25 and the kids just recently decided to get into bantams. So we have a sweetheart mottled Cochin whom I'm looking for a mate as hers disappeared and we have a milles duccle. The kids would also like to get more of that breed. Currently we have around 25 chicks in the brooder and another 25 eggs in the incubator. But I have been having ALOT of problems with my incubator. A few hatched in the last few days with 2 being deformed. I think the incubator has hot spots....
and our power went out for around 8 hours.
We also have a pair of Pekin ducks and just hatched 3 more. That is my kids project for a market duck category.
We love our poultry and wish there were hatcheries close to ND to get some of the breeds we would like. Beings we live so far north; shipped eggs always have very poor hatch rates and the last shipped eggs I got I paid a fortune for and only one was fertile. The time before that, out of a dozen, only 3 were not cracked. Last summer we had an order of 20 chicks come in the mail and only 8 survived. So a lot of bad luck. But we keep trying.
Nice to meet you all; I'd gladly accept any advice on incubators and good places to buy show quality eggs/chicks without breaking the bank.
We decided to get into chickens after my son had many issues eating store bought foods. He has Hirschsprung's disease and currently is sporting an ileostomy. He is 3.
We butchered around 50 or so last summer and plan to do another 50 Cornish x this summer. We have an assortment of egg layers; around 25 and the kids just recently decided to get into bantams. So we have a sweetheart mottled Cochin whom I'm looking for a mate as hers disappeared and we have a milles duccle. The kids would also like to get more of that breed. Currently we have around 25 chicks in the brooder and another 25 eggs in the incubator. But I have been having ALOT of problems with my incubator. A few hatched in the last few days with 2 being deformed. I think the incubator has hot spots....

We also have a pair of Pekin ducks and just hatched 3 more. That is my kids project for a market duck category.
We love our poultry and wish there were hatcheries close to ND to get some of the breeds we would like. Beings we live so far north; shipped eggs always have very poor hatch rates and the last shipped eggs I got I paid a fortune for and only one was fertile. The time before that, out of a dozen, only 3 were not cracked. Last summer we had an order of 20 chicks come in the mail and only 8 survived. So a lot of bad luck. But we keep trying.
Nice to meet you all; I'd gladly accept any advice on incubators and good places to buy show quality eggs/chicks without breaking the bank.