TampaBayRealtorJoe
In the Brooder
- Jun 28, 2025
- 1
- 10
- 11
Hello, Thank you for allowing me to join this site!
How I got into having backyard chickens is in interesting story. A neighbor of mine was begging me to get chickens since I have a large back yard with not much going on back there. I knew it was a big commitment so I didn't just jump into it...yet.
I have a brother that lived in northern Florida on a home with a decent amount of land and has a large chicken coop and around 25 chickens. When he visits, he usually brings me some fresh eggs to eat. He recently bought me a dozen and made mention to me that he didn't clean them so I didn't really have to put them in the refrigerator if I didn't want to. Knowing I was going to eat them, I put them in the refrigerator anyway. During the next week, I came across a great deal on an egg incubator for $4. I buy and resell products that are new and were returned to Amazon. I bought the incubator thinking I would resell it like I do so many other products but on the drive home, my mind started wandering and thinking, what if I took the unwashed, fertilized eggs (my brother has roosters) from the refrigerator and put them in the incubator? As soon as I got home I Googled, how long can a fertilized egg be in the refrigerator and still have the possibility of hatching. A couple of results came back saying up to 2 weeks, so I figured there's definitely a chance. It started out as a bit of a science/biology experiment. I studied up and started the 21 day incubation process and after the 21 days, 5 of the eggs hatched! I call these my miracle chicks!
About a week after they hatched, I asked another relative that lives closer to me if I could have some of his fertilized eggs. He gave me a few dozen to choose from and I selected 12 eggs from his Cream Legbar chickens. After another 21 days, 9 more chicks hatched.
My plan is to keep 4 to 6 hens and give away all of the roosters and sell the young hens that I don't have room for. I'm pretty sure which of the Legbar chicks (2 weeks old today) are males and females (except for 1 that shows signs of either). Of the 5 older chicks that just turned 5 weeks old yesterday, I'm having much more difficulty.
The first 2 photos are of my older chicks and the other 9 are the Legbar ones. If any of you can help to try and identify roosters vs. hens as well as the breeds of the older ones, I'd greatly appreciate it.
Thank you,
Joe Martino
How I got into having backyard chickens is in interesting story. A neighbor of mine was begging me to get chickens since I have a large back yard with not much going on back there. I knew it was a big commitment so I didn't just jump into it...yet.
I have a brother that lived in northern Florida on a home with a decent amount of land and has a large chicken coop and around 25 chickens. When he visits, he usually brings me some fresh eggs to eat. He recently bought me a dozen and made mention to me that he didn't clean them so I didn't really have to put them in the refrigerator if I didn't want to. Knowing I was going to eat them, I put them in the refrigerator anyway. During the next week, I came across a great deal on an egg incubator for $4. I buy and resell products that are new and were returned to Amazon. I bought the incubator thinking I would resell it like I do so many other products but on the drive home, my mind started wandering and thinking, what if I took the unwashed, fertilized eggs (my brother has roosters) from the refrigerator and put them in the incubator? As soon as I got home I Googled, how long can a fertilized egg be in the refrigerator and still have the possibility of hatching. A couple of results came back saying up to 2 weeks, so I figured there's definitely a chance. It started out as a bit of a science/biology experiment. I studied up and started the 21 day incubation process and after the 21 days, 5 of the eggs hatched! I call these my miracle chicks!
About a week after they hatched, I asked another relative that lives closer to me if I could have some of his fertilized eggs. He gave me a few dozen to choose from and I selected 12 eggs from his Cream Legbar chickens. After another 21 days, 9 more chicks hatched.
My plan is to keep 4 to 6 hens and give away all of the roosters and sell the young hens that I don't have room for. I'm pretty sure which of the Legbar chicks (2 weeks old today) are males and females (except for 1 that shows signs of either). Of the 5 older chicks that just turned 5 weeks old yesterday, I'm having much more difficulty.
The first 2 photos are of my older chicks and the other 9 are the Legbar ones. If any of you can help to try and identify roosters vs. hens as well as the breeds of the older ones, I'd greatly appreciate it.
Thank you,
Joe Martino
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