The Stealth Hatch, or the marital fiasco.....

[chickensducks&agoose]

My husband hates chickens. I LOOOOOOOVE them. he doesn't complain much as long as i keep them away from his porch, car and anywhere he wants to walk. Anyway, I have finally lost the battle for sanity, and with one of those tiny-dinky incubators that the kids got from their uncle for X-mas, I am going to try to hatch 2 or 3 (?) under the unfinished (no sink) bathroom vanity (the only place i can be sure he will never look). I thumbtacked dishtowels up behind the doors, and put a blanket (folded) on the top... i checked, and no light gets out. I assume that as long as I open it frequently to check the temp, that the air will circulate enough. And as a stay at home mom, i will be around... it says to lay the eggs flat, with the bigger end slightly elevated. then turn them end over end so the other side is up, with the bigger end still elevated... is this correct? is there some other way I should be doing this? Will my husband find out? 21 days (assuming i start today) will mean the 31st. Any advice?

 

[agnes_day]

surely he isnt that controlling that you have to hide them to that extent. tell him that he will love them once they are here!

 

[eatmorechicken]

tell him you have peeps in the cubbard.. then when they hatch or he finds out he can't say that you never told him.

 

[chickensducks&agoose]

actually, he IS that controlling... and he'd never let me if he knew... but i tend to go by the theory that if he finds out when it's too late, yeah, he's mad, but at least I got to do what i wanted to....

 

[embkm]

I've heard the little incubators don't work very well... but hey, my homemade bator is a styro box and a light bulb so go figure! As long as your temps and humidity is right, it should be fine.

Good luck! I know I wouldn't be able to keep it from my DH for 3 weeks. Especially with my kids. We'd all be so excited one of us would blab. It might be better to just tell DH up front, but spin it as an experiment for the kids. Tell him the plan to keep it in the unused area and have a plan for the chicks. It's much harder to argue against a well thought out plan.

I just want to point out that I was told if you set the eggs after noon, Day 1 isn't until the next day. So your hatch date would be April 1st.

 

[chickensducks&agoose]

Thanks! Do you guys think that 3 eggs is too many? I thought maybe if i wanted 2 chicks, maybe i should try 3 eggs...

 

[Jenski]

Great idea! As a divorced person, I can say with experience that doing what you want without consulting your spouse works like a charm.

You did say you wanted to hasten the demise of your marriage, didn't you?

 

[Hangin Wit My Peeps]

I'm wondering if he's going to HEAR the humming of it. Bators can be pretty noisy. My husband heard mine and it was in my sons room (he's away at school) He looks in and says "OH BOY! more chickens!" He's NOT really excited but he was just being sarcastic with me. He pretends he doesn't want that many chickens but he really does like them. I heard him talking to my baby silkies in the basement the other day.

 

[corancher]

Let me say that life is way to short to have someone control you to the point that you are afraid to put a little incubator out in the open.

So very sorry. Hope all goes well.

 

[chickensducks&agoose]

I figure if the worst thing that I do is hide a few hatching eggs around the house, then he can't just divorce me.... i don't cheat, nag or anything else, and I am intensely tolerant of his annoying habits (PUT THE DANG SEAT DOWN!!!)... he was driving too fast the other day (35 mph, in bad icy weather), slid out, and dented the car really bad on a tree... i didn't yell or anything. So i DESERVE these chicks... plus, he's active duty military, so i have to put up with him being gone a lot... though not in the next 21 days... maybe i'll mention it to him... but if he says NO, then I'm going to do it anyway, which will be worse than if I didn't mention it at all.... geez, being married is hard!

so, 2 or 3 eggs?