New to Eggs and Chicks!

[PRUrbanFarmer]

Thought this would be the best place to come for advice from you wonderful people. I recently decided that I would love to expand my current flock of 5 light sussex and acquired a light sussex rooster. Now for the extremely new phase, eggs!

What does someone completely new need to know before starting the en devour of incubating eggs and raising chicks? I am hoping that by doing this I can add 12 more hens to my flock for next summer, and keep exclusive to the light sussex breed. I am also hoping to sell a few pullets in the spring.

But i have no idea where to start? Thank you for your time and patience.

 

[Lozuufy]

This section in the learning center has TONS of good articles on hatching eggs https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/hatching-eggs-and-raising-chicks

This article is really great https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/hatching-eggs-101

I hope these links help

 

[ChickadeeNMe]

Hey there and Welcome! I'm pretty new here too. I currently have some eggs in my incubator for the first time, so I'm right there with you. I would start by reading the "Hatching Eggs 101" article on this website, if you haven't already. I tried to attach a link for you, but for some reason I can't copy and paste here.

What kind of incubator have ya got? I purchased a Farm Innovators 4200 and a Little Giant Still Air. I'm returning the Little Giant. It seems to be a death trap, as in one side of the incubator will be 106 and the other end will read 98. My advice to you would be (if you haven't purchased an incubator yet) to get a forced or circulated air incubator. They distribute the heat evenly and mine is working great. My eggs are due to hatch on Saturday!! Good luck to you!!!

 

[roberta k]

Hi. Also new to hatching eggs. So we didn't really handle the eggs all that much. In fact they still have quite a bit of poo on them. I know we don't wash them but can we use a soft towel and clean them up a bit before we put them in the incubator?

 

[Hholly]

Are your chickens laying in nesting boxes? Are they sleeping in their nesting boxes? Just wondering where they are getting so much poo on the eggs. Maybe you can change the setup so they won't poo so much where they lay. Otherwise, a gentle brush off of he poo might work. But hopefully some experienced incubators will speak up on this.