Thanks! 20 out of 37 eggs hatched! update.

[skeeter]

hey good luck with your hatch,funny thing about my fan,just as i was putting more eggs in the silly thing started working again,t minus 16 and counting

 

[dirtfishing1]

Thanks to everyone who helped and to this forum for the information that led me to great hatch sucess.

Of the 37 eggs I put in, 20 pipped and hatched. All are 2 days old now and very healthy. I tried to candle at day 18 when I moved them from the turner to the hatching boxes, but I could not tell much. None of them smelled so I let them go. The others that did not hatch are still in the incubator till tomorrow.
What was cool is that by chance most are black sex links from my barred rock hens and my NHR rooster. I have 9 black chicks with the white spot on the head and 7 without the spot. Only 4 are white\
ust colored. Some have black beeks as well. My wife likes the Black ones with white wing tips.My two boys like to watch them run around the brooder.
I will try to post a couple of pictures.

Thanks again.

Dirt.

 

[jab91864]

Congrats !!!

I love the pics !!!

Julie

 

[EmptyNest]

How cool is that - I love the brooder that you made. Your sons will enjoy watching the chicks.

 

[dirtfishing1]

Thanks for the comment about the brooder.
I made it from salvaged scrap pallets and leftover particle board. That window used to be in the kitchen before I replaced all the windows last year. I save everything that could be usefull later. I have about $13 in the brooder total. $3 for hardware and $10 for the feeder and waterers.
It is about 2 feet off the ground on 2x4 legs and measures about 4 feet by 2 feet by 2 feet high. It has a hinged lid that is covered by hardware cloth to keep out the cats. It took about 5 nights for about an hour each night to assemble. I am currently making a small chicken house to house the babies from 8 weeks to 14 weeks. Then the males will go in the freezer and the pullets will be integrated into the flock. I will also be getting some RIR
chicks come March from the farm store, and hopefully some Buttercups from a hatchery in May\\June.

I will get the wife to take some more pictures of the brooder and house soon to post later in the week.
I will most likely do an e-book about all this in the summer.

Have fun and enjoy!

Dirt.

 

[fallenweeble]

awesome!
good job.
now people are going to come to you with questions!- you will be a local "home made" incubator/brooder expert.

 

[silkiechicken]

With 20 chicks, best get going on that teen chick house! They grow like little monsters, and before you know it, 2x4 is going to be cramped! I can't wait for little bundles of fluff!

 

[Queen of the Lilliputians]

Great job!

Congrats!

 

[dirtfishing1]

I have taken the kids old play house that was outside and turned it into the teen house for the chicks. I put hardware clolth on the insides of the windows to keep out unwanted guests and developed a gate latch with an old piece of deck railing. I anchored a sturdy doubled up 1x4 board for a roost. They will have a dirt floor with pine shreds as litter.

I am hoping to keep them in the brooder till at least mid march. They will have a nice run next to the older birds run.
I have a 50'x100' chain link area that is sectioned in 5 different areas with a garden in the middle.

This is to much fun, wish I had started years ago.


Dirt.