emorems0
Songster
We've been planning on keeping a few (six or so) laying hens for a long time but kept putting it off for various reasons. I've done lots of research and we've been feeding the chickens and eating eggs from my friend's backyard flock for the last year or so. The plan was to get a half dozen pullets next Spring, but my daughter came home from school yesterday wanting to hatch chicks from eggs (they are hatching chicks at school apparently). I hadn't planned on hatching from eggs, so this is new territory for me, her dad said 'yes' of course, knowing that I've been wanting to keep chickens anyway, lol.
My first problem is finding hatching eggs... We want black australorps, but the local Craigslist ads are all for silkies and bantams. Not sure where else to look as I'm mostly finding already hatched chicks.
Second, what is the bare minimum that we'd need for incubating and hatching chicks? We're only planning on doing this once and don't want to spend a lot of money on a fancy incubator. When we want to add more chickens to our flock we'll probably just go for pullets so we are less likely to get stuck with a rooster.
Last thing... if we want to end up with ~6 hens, how many eggs should we buy? And I assume we'll try to sell any roosters on Craigslist, but what do you do with them if you can't re-home them (I've cracked open a fertilized egg in a frying pan before and it's not an experience I wish to repeat!)?
Thanks for all the help! I'm very excited to add chickens to our family, just not quite getting started in the way I had planned!
Melissa
My first problem is finding hatching eggs... We want black australorps, but the local Craigslist ads are all for silkies and bantams. Not sure where else to look as I'm mostly finding already hatched chicks.
Second, what is the bare minimum that we'd need for incubating and hatching chicks? We're only planning on doing this once and don't want to spend a lot of money on a fancy incubator. When we want to add more chickens to our flock we'll probably just go for pullets so we are less likely to get stuck with a rooster.
Last thing... if we want to end up with ~6 hens, how many eggs should we buy? And I assume we'll try to sell any roosters on Craigslist, but what do you do with them if you can't re-home them (I've cracked open a fertilized egg in a frying pan before and it's not an experience I wish to repeat!)?
Thanks for all the help! I'm very excited to add chickens to our family, just not quite getting started in the way I had planned!
Melissa
