She said/He said Who's right? Who's wrong? No one!

[scflock]

Too tired to think of anything witty to say.  Broody Betty is still on the job for over 3 days now.  She lets me pull out the other eggs she's stolen every afternoon from the community nest..  She's half Cuckoo Marans - maybe that's why she's so determined?

DH made it out of the Sierras after backpacking for 5 days. Now he's headed back to SoCal to see family and will be home Friday Morning.  Sure is quiet here, but my internet friends, chickens and dogs keep me entertained.  

Oh, that reminds me. Have to check for more chicks when I get home! I didn't know that Marans were so broody, but my cuckoos and black coppers both are

 

[WVduckchick]

Maybe you just had it in the background, but it was a good excuse to post another walrus pic

Good possibility. And I thought you were comparing me to the walrus this time...

Oh, that reminds me. Have to check for more chicks when I get home! I didn't know that Marans were so broody, but my cuckoos and black coppers both are

I wanna see more pics!

 

[WalnutHill]

I wonder if you can hatch walruses...those clips are funny as all get out.

I was fishing in a Florida canal once and two manatee came over to visit. I had to stop fishing, but they were very entertaining. They acted like 400 pound otters.

 

[WalnutHill]

Custom hatching...has anyone here tried it? Hatching for money? If so, how did it work out...if it did not work out well, why not?
I can write software to manage set/hatch dates so that I can fill up a bator and have only one tray hatching a week in each. Between the GQF and my homebuilt, I can incubate a lot of eggs. That would give me a reason to buy a dedicated hatcher.

No one does it around here, closest is 40 miles and only in April/May. I can run my incubator all year and it would give me an excuse to do so. It doesn't cost any more to incubate 200 eggs than it does 20.

 

[silkiecuddles]

Custom hatching...has anyone here tried it? Hatching for money? If so, how did it work out...if it did not work out well, why not?
I can write software to manage set/hatch dates so that I can fill up a bator and have only one tray hatching a week in each. Between the GQF and my homebuilt, I can incubate a lot of eggs. That would give me a reason to buy a dedicated hatcher.

No one does it around here, closest is 40 miles and only in April/May. I can run my incubator all year and it would give me an excuse to do so. It doesn't cost any more to incubate 200 eggs than it does 20.

Like hatching specifically for someone? I did it twice for the same person, my neighbor. I hatched 15 out of 19 BOs in my Brinsea, and 5 out of like 12 BOs in her LG. Not the exact numbers, i can't remember.
I did it out of courtesy mainly because her hatch rate was low. She paid me $20 for the first 15, and a pigeon for the 5

 

[FridayYet]

Custom hatching...has anyone here tried it? Hatching for money? If so, how did it work out...if it did not work out well, why not?
I can write software to manage set/hatch dates so that I can fill up a bator and have only one tray hatching a week in each. Between the GQF and my homebuilt, I can incubate a lot of eggs. That would give me a reason to buy a dedicated hatcher.

No one does it around here, closest is 40 miles and only in April/May. I can run my incubator all year and it would give me an excuse to do so. It doesn't cost any more to incubate 200 eggs than it does 20.

I know (well, internet know) of people that hatch a bunch of chicks in the spring, then only "hatch by request" for the next few months. You have to pay up front, or one person takes 1/2 deposit down. Seems to work well for them, and if you have something people want, they won't mind waiting 3 weeks to get it.

Too hot to ship a lot of places in summer, but if you have enough local population you could probably swing it.

 

[NTBugtraq]

Custom hatching...has anyone here tried it? Hatching for money? If so, how did it work out...if it did not work out well, why not?
I can write software to manage set/hatch dates so that I can fill up a bator and have only one tray hatching a week in each. Between the GQF and my homebuilt, I can incubate a lot of eggs. That would give me a reason to buy a dedicated hatcher.

No one does it around here, closest is 40 miles and only in April/May. I can run my incubator all year and it would give me an excuse to do so. It doesn't cost any more to incubate 200 eggs than it does 20.

A good friend does it, but she does not charge to do it so the financial aspects haven't been studied. She puts other's eggs in with her on since she has a large Brinsea.

Firstly, the contract would have to be fairly verbose regarding "not responsible" stuff. Nobody can vouch for the state of the eggs going in, so fertility rate and hatchability are out of the question...but if that's so, then why have you hatch them at all? Assuming they can't buy day-olds (or older), there's the only reason (or somehow you are going to price yourself cheaper). The only way I could see it being profitable is if you had multiple bators and could sustain rolling hatches. So you have X bators running pre-lockdown, and enough to handle how many lockdowns you might need.

My concern would be introducing new eggs to an existing hatch...how do you know what's on those new eggs? If you were sterile enough you could wash all new eggs (I've talked with people who dip their eggs in a chlorine solution before putting them in the bator, and they seem to think it works).

The other concern is how to convince someone whose eggs have failed that you should still get paid.

OTOH, I recently found out that queen bees need to be hatched, so offering a hatching service could extend to such things, or exotic birds, turtles, snakes, and a variety of egg laying species.

 

[WVduckchick]

Custom hatching...has anyone here tried it?  Hatching for money?  If so, how did it work out...if it did not work out well, why not?
I can write software to manage set/hatch dates so that I can fill up a bator and have only one tray hatching a week in each.  Between the GQF and my homebuilt, I can incubate a lot of eggs.  That would give me a reason to buy a dedicated hatcher.

No one does it around here, closest is 40 miles and only in April/May.  I can run my incubator all year and it would give me an excuse to do so.  It doesn't cost any more to incubate 200 eggs than it does 20.

I've seen ads around here for the service. And I'd love to do it! My SIL hatched some for a local farmer near her, he took the eggs to her, from his flock, and paid her a couple bucks each for only the ones that hatched. He didn't have an incubator and didn't want to get one. That's usually the way I see listings here.

 

[WalnutHill]

I have absolutely no qualms in hatching snakes or other reptiles.

 

[NTBugtraq]

I've seen ads around here for the service. And I'd love to do it! My SIL hatched some for a local farmer near her, he took the eggs to her, from his flock, and paid her a couple bucks each for only the ones that hatched. He didn't have an incubator and didn't want to get one. That's usually the way I see listings here.

Well, nobody buys dead day olds, so that makes sense, as long as there is no expectation of fertility.