- Jun 28, 2011
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A guy we know, not a friend, went and bought an incubator about 4 weeks ago. I saw the ad online and knowing he was looking for one, gave him the number and told him to go have a look. So he comes back with this homemade thing and I told him I don't think it's perfect, but he should have a go with it and see how it goes. Or rather I will, his electricity's cut off where he is and is not getting it turned back on for some reason.
So we agree that I will put in 1/3 of the eggs and he will put in the rest from his chickens (total 56 eggs) and I will do the business. We've been paying for the electricity.
What I didn't know was just how badly put together this thing is.
Just keeping the temperature range right was a full time job. We had to check it 100 times a day, fiddling with the thermostat everytime we turned the eggs and a few times in between.
Then one of the lightbulbs went. I phoned the owner who promised he will bring a new one, didn't until the next day and then it was a blue 40w bulb! So I went and bought bulbs. Am still waiting for my money.
Sunday morning the first chick made an appearance. The owner of the box said he'll come round in the morning, but only showed up late afternoon. The chicks kept coming, but my DH and I had to help 6 of them hatch. I got up 01:30AM Monday morning and helped a chick, stayed up with it 'till around 04:00AM. Yesterday morning I got up at 05:00 to help a chick hatch and last night I stayed up late with another problem hatch chick whom I miraculously pulled through. We eventually got to 11 chicks yesterday evening.
The owner came round this afternoon, after failing to show up yesterday evening to collect some of his chicks. Looked very upset with the low hatch rate. I said I want to wait 'till this evening or tomorrow morning and then I'm quitting with that box. I'll check the remaining eggs for any living chicks and take care of them, but I'm tired and I'm tired of babysitting that box. Today is day 23 already and there hasn't been any sign of life since yesterday evening's problem baby.
He started critisising my decision and said he will take the eggs somewhere and try and get them to hatch. He takes an egg out of the box and goes outside with it, smashed the shell, not breaking the membrane, and looks at the chick inside. It was still alive, so I said I could possibly help it, seeing the membrane's intact and the chick is nearly ready to hatch.
He fed it to my pig.
I spent hours and hours helping chicks, including a slightly premature one, not losing a single one and he just throws that little thing away like that. Not trusting my knowledge and experience. Without which we would've had 5 chicks only. (And here I must add quick that the info I got on this forum regarding hatching chicks helped enormously.)
He wasn't here helping over the past 3 weeks. He didn't turn a single egg. He didn't top up the water. He didn't run to the neighbors with the incubator when our power got turned off for a few hours when a pole fell down. He didn't sit in the chick pen adjusting the heat lamp and shifting newborns around so they don't overheat. He wasn't interested. All he cared about was getting the maximum number of chicks out of this hatch.
I didn't even get a "thank you for making such an effort".
And he actually wants me to do this all over again and hand over 2/3's of the chicks to him who only wants chickens because he wants to make money off them.
I said I taking the premmie chick, so I'm getting 5 chicks for my troubles. Much as I love chicks, I'm not sure it was worth it.
Oh, he's now blaming me for the incubator turning out to be such a disaster, because I saw the ad and told him about it, which in his head turned into I "recommended" it and I "suggested" he buys it.
I'm not going to help him with anything again.
Thanks for letting me vent.
So we agree that I will put in 1/3 of the eggs and he will put in the rest from his chickens (total 56 eggs) and I will do the business. We've been paying for the electricity.
What I didn't know was just how badly put together this thing is.
Just keeping the temperature range right was a full time job. We had to check it 100 times a day, fiddling with the thermostat everytime we turned the eggs and a few times in between.
Then one of the lightbulbs went. I phoned the owner who promised he will bring a new one, didn't until the next day and then it was a blue 40w bulb! So I went and bought bulbs. Am still waiting for my money.
Sunday morning the first chick made an appearance. The owner of the box said he'll come round in the morning, but only showed up late afternoon. The chicks kept coming, but my DH and I had to help 6 of them hatch. I got up 01:30AM Monday morning and helped a chick, stayed up with it 'till around 04:00AM. Yesterday morning I got up at 05:00 to help a chick hatch and last night I stayed up late with another problem hatch chick whom I miraculously pulled through. We eventually got to 11 chicks yesterday evening.
The owner came round this afternoon, after failing to show up yesterday evening to collect some of his chicks. Looked very upset with the low hatch rate. I said I want to wait 'till this evening or tomorrow morning and then I'm quitting with that box. I'll check the remaining eggs for any living chicks and take care of them, but I'm tired and I'm tired of babysitting that box. Today is day 23 already and there hasn't been any sign of life since yesterday evening's problem baby.
He started critisising my decision and said he will take the eggs somewhere and try and get them to hatch. He takes an egg out of the box and goes outside with it, smashed the shell, not breaking the membrane, and looks at the chick inside. It was still alive, so I said I could possibly help it, seeing the membrane's intact and the chick is nearly ready to hatch.
He fed it to my pig.
I spent hours and hours helping chicks, including a slightly premature one, not losing a single one and he just throws that little thing away like that. Not trusting my knowledge and experience. Without which we would've had 5 chicks only. (And here I must add quick that the info I got on this forum regarding hatching chicks helped enormously.)
He wasn't here helping over the past 3 weeks. He didn't turn a single egg. He didn't top up the water. He didn't run to the neighbors with the incubator when our power got turned off for a few hours when a pole fell down. He didn't sit in the chick pen adjusting the heat lamp and shifting newborns around so they don't overheat. He wasn't interested. All he cared about was getting the maximum number of chicks out of this hatch.
I didn't even get a "thank you for making such an effort".
And he actually wants me to do this all over again and hand over 2/3's of the chicks to him who only wants chickens because he wants to make money off them.
I said I taking the premmie chick, so I'm getting 5 chicks for my troubles. Much as I love chicks, I'm not sure it was worth it.
Oh, he's now blaming me for the incubator turning out to be such a disaster, because I saw the ad and told him about it, which in his head turned into I "recommended" it and I "suggested" he buys it.
I'm not going to help him with anything again.
Thanks for letting me vent.
