Re-entering world of chickens, are we crazy to consider trying eggs?

[lcpotter]

We are looking to start our mini-flock of Old English Game Bantams. One person is selling eggs, are we crazy to consider trying to hatch eggs the first time out (my husband and I raised chickens but never from eggs). Do feedstores rent incubators or can we make our own? We would probably keep the eggs in our house.

Thanks for any suggestions/advice.

 

[Long Last Farm]

You can do It! I had chickens for less than one year, but now I have successfully hatched 2 times, and working on a third. Get your eggs from a reputable person . Local ( no shipping) would probably be better, but shipped eggs can hatch well also. I don't know about renting incubators--maybe try the local extension office? I have a Brinsea, which works great. I think of it as an investment...GOOD LUCK!!!

 

[Jocasta]

There's no reason not to start with eggs although you'll have to make sure that any breeding stock are unrelated.

As for incubators, they aren't too much money to buy the cheaper models, gaging from the rental prices in the UK (where I am) you may as well just buy one. You can however make one realitvely inexpensively and there are various designs online. The cheapest I've seen, design wise was using a styrofoam box (often you can get these for free in pet stores - they are used to transport tropical fish). Wiring a lamp through a thermostat set to the correct temperature (so that the light will turn off when it's warm enough and switch back on when the heat dips. And put a couple of bowls of water in there for humidity. You'd need a thermostat, a lamp, a box, a sheet of glass (you'd cut a hole in the side of the box so you could see what's going on in there), two thermometers, one to use for temp and one to use as a "wet bulb". Heck, check out this link - explains it better than I can: http://www.cyberquail.com/incubators.html

As for eggs, depending on species, they can only be stored for 7 days and you need to turn them daily, and store them either on their sides or pointy end down. Once you start the incubation process, you need to turn them at least three times a day. I'm not sure why but apparently you can turn them more frequently (I think as much as once an hour) but it has to be an odd number of turns.

Hatching chicks is so much fun. I had a broody do it for me last year but this year I've got an incubator going

Can't wait for D-Day

 

[TigerLilly]

Go for it!

 

[2 britts]

I have also raised chickens through out my life but never from hatching my own eggs,until I got an incubator for Christmas. There is no greater satisfaction than hatching your own chicks. I would research different incubators and decide from there which one would fit your needs and budget. I do know that when you do it once you're hooked! Hope this was some help and good luck.

 

[Hottchick]

I hatched a batch of eggs for my son's science experiment. I borrowed an incubator from my sister who is a teacher. Do you know any teachers? If they have one you might be able to borrow it. Or they may know someone who has one you can borrow. If you have an Ag. extension office where you are they might have one you can use too.

 

[blefky]

If you have 4H near you, I've read that sometimes you can borrow/rent incubators through them, though I don't have any personal experience with doing that. Good luck!