chickiemamaRN
Hatching
- Jan 24, 2017
- 1
- 0
- 7
Hello everyone!
My name is Erika and I'm *considering* incubating and attempting to hatch some baby chicks. Reproduction in general has been a longterm love of mine. I'm an RN specializing in maternal-child health working towards becoming a Nurse-Midwife. I grew up watching a Baby Story, That's my Baby (animal version basically) and was always fascinated by anything pregnant/giving birth/being born. So that passion, along with my mom's desire for some backyard chickens for egg laying is what made me think about possibly trying this.
This won't be my first time technically but I'm not sure how much my first time actually counts. I was homeschooled in 7th grade and my mom and I decided to hatch chicks as a science project. We borrowed a HovaBator from a neighbor who did 4H, bought 50 potentially fertilized eggs from a crazy chicken raising old guy, and set out for the adventure not really knowing a ton of what we were doing. I remember being confused about turning, humidity, temperature regulation, etc. We tried to candle them once but we weren't sure what we were seeing. Out of the 50 eggs, 3 tried to hatch (pipped I guess) 2 actually hatched fully and 1 made it. Looking at photos here and reading the Hatching 101 thread I'm understanding a lot more of what happened. I know now a lot of the chicks were fertile but died early on, (I think we tried to candle them at 10 days) because I remember seeing what that looks like on some of the eggs we candled. I think a lot of them also were never fertile. One of the chicks that tried to hatch had the mushy yolk thing going on, where it still had a ton of yolk and wasn't fully formed. The other one had the weird thing with her navel and it somehow got pulled (it was traumatic and scarring and a family friend took care of it all for us). The one who did make it out stayed healthy and I raised her until she was old enough to go to the feed store (because my family didn't want a chicken at the time even though I begged to keep her). Her name was Lola and watching her grow was amazing.
I want to try again because 1) I love the mystery/miraculousness of it all 2) I want to redeem that first attempt because I still feel bad about all those lost chickens 3) because my family actually wants chickens now and I'd love to surprise my mom for her birthday in May (if possible).
I'm a very sensitive person and I'm nervous that if I did get a malformed chicken or a chick that tried to hatch and died trying I would blame myself. Has anybody else experienced this? What's your perspective that gets you through it without being an emotional wreck?
I'm currently just trying to figure out how I'd do it, what supplies I'd get, learning the basics. I'm thinking about if I buy an incubator whether I want to get the Hovabator Genesis or the Incuview. I'd probably buy the Incuview Ultimate Combo Kit on IncubatorWarehouse.com because I'd want to have all the things ready to go. I'd use a turner and not turn them myself, just because with my work I don't know if I'd always be available to turn them or remember. I would get the eggs online from somewhere like McMurray's hatchery, unless I could find someone reliable with fertile eggs that I could buy from. It's looking like an expensive endeavor!
Like I said, I'm a nurse and I work three days a week, 12 hour shift, night shift, so I guess I'd be home at part-time status to keep an eye on them and make sure temp and humidity stays good. I trust myself to be able to maintain temp and humidity and I think that that first time sticking in my head would serve as a great motivation to keep an eye out on those things and really learn the answers to my questions (for the most part) before actually giving it ago.
Any advice/response would be appreciated. I've loved getting to read through what I've read so far about everyone's experiences!
My name is Erika and I'm *considering* incubating and attempting to hatch some baby chicks. Reproduction in general has been a longterm love of mine. I'm an RN specializing in maternal-child health working towards becoming a Nurse-Midwife. I grew up watching a Baby Story, That's my Baby (animal version basically) and was always fascinated by anything pregnant/giving birth/being born. So that passion, along with my mom's desire for some backyard chickens for egg laying is what made me think about possibly trying this.
This won't be my first time technically but I'm not sure how much my first time actually counts. I was homeschooled in 7th grade and my mom and I decided to hatch chicks as a science project. We borrowed a HovaBator from a neighbor who did 4H, bought 50 potentially fertilized eggs from a crazy chicken raising old guy, and set out for the adventure not really knowing a ton of what we were doing. I remember being confused about turning, humidity, temperature regulation, etc. We tried to candle them once but we weren't sure what we were seeing. Out of the 50 eggs, 3 tried to hatch (pipped I guess) 2 actually hatched fully and 1 made it. Looking at photos here and reading the Hatching 101 thread I'm understanding a lot more of what happened. I know now a lot of the chicks were fertile but died early on, (I think we tried to candle them at 10 days) because I remember seeing what that looks like on some of the eggs we candled. I think a lot of them also were never fertile. One of the chicks that tried to hatch had the mushy yolk thing going on, where it still had a ton of yolk and wasn't fully formed. The other one had the weird thing with her navel and it somehow got pulled (it was traumatic and scarring and a family friend took care of it all for us). The one who did make it out stayed healthy and I raised her until she was old enough to go to the feed store (because my family didn't want a chicken at the time even though I begged to keep her). Her name was Lola and watching her grow was amazing.
I want to try again because 1) I love the mystery/miraculousness of it all 2) I want to redeem that first attempt because I still feel bad about all those lost chickens 3) because my family actually wants chickens now and I'd love to surprise my mom for her birthday in May (if possible).
I'm a very sensitive person and I'm nervous that if I did get a malformed chicken or a chick that tried to hatch and died trying I would blame myself. Has anybody else experienced this? What's your perspective that gets you through it without being an emotional wreck?
I'm currently just trying to figure out how I'd do it, what supplies I'd get, learning the basics. I'm thinking about if I buy an incubator whether I want to get the Hovabator Genesis or the Incuview. I'd probably buy the Incuview Ultimate Combo Kit on IncubatorWarehouse.com because I'd want to have all the things ready to go. I'd use a turner and not turn them myself, just because with my work I don't know if I'd always be available to turn them or remember. I would get the eggs online from somewhere like McMurray's hatchery, unless I could find someone reliable with fertile eggs that I could buy from. It's looking like an expensive endeavor!
Like I said, I'm a nurse and I work three days a week, 12 hour shift, night shift, so I guess I'd be home at part-time status to keep an eye on them and make sure temp and humidity stays good. I trust myself to be able to maintain temp and humidity and I think that that first time sticking in my head would serve as a great motivation to keep an eye out on those things and really learn the answers to my questions (for the most part) before actually giving it ago.
Any advice/response would be appreciated. I've loved getting to read through what I've read so far about everyone's experiences!