thinking of hatching my own chicks, help

[moxiechick101]

Welcome, I hope you're enjoying BYC so far!

I have the 1602N, and can't believe how well it works for my novice hatching!

Only recommendation is use blankets or something like that if you need help stabilizing the temp making sure not to cover the air holes though. Since my house is around 60 in winter, I had to do this to get the temp high enough. And do plug it in and get it stabile for a good day or so before adding your eggs. Stinks to do it with your eggs in there. I have anxiety sooo bad and this incubator was so simple, it's great, especially for a starter IMHO. I have not added a turner or a fan to mine.

Happy hatching!

Thanks for the recommendation. I am anxiety prone as well and was pulling my hair out over what incubator to get. I don't know how I'm going to make it through 28 days, but the babies will be worth it. How was your hatch rate using this incubator?

 

[EggSighted4Life]

My first and second hatch were 68 & 69% with allegedly harder to hatch breeds than others, being Swedish Flowers and Marans. And my method was laden with human error. Don't follow my example.. I didn't even figure out the first time until near the end that I was looking for the air sack at the wrong side. The second time, early on I couldn't see the sacks even w/ 2 flashlights. So, I kept temps & humidity where I wanted. But where you set you thermometer makes it read different, hotter near the top. My 2nd hatch was also 1 day early (I knew I was too warm at set) & might actually be a higher % hatch rate since I didn't eggtopsy (3) to see if they were clears or early quitters. Meaning hatch rate comes after you know fertility rate. (was near 100% 1st hatch) So if 3 were clear on round 2, then my actual hatch rate would be 90%. But I'm not at the point where I'm comfortable opening eggs that have been warm for longer than I'm willing to smell the contents (candling Marans eggs and being a new hatcher makes it hard to decide if you have life, so I left them since I wasn't sure). With time I will get better at knowing what I'm seeing, especially in my focus breed.

In fact the 9 I hatched were tucked under a mama broody last night!

 

[AmyLynn2374]

I can say I seldom have an egg that stinks. In the beginning, from my second hatch I opened everything. Then I changed to opening only eggs that only had development. Now, I just eggtospy those that made it to lockdown and didn't hatch. Usually that's only 2 or 3.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Different people consider hatch rate to mean different things. In commercial hatcheries where they may be hatching 1,000,000 each week, certain people manage the egg laying operation and different people manage the incubation. The people in the egg laying end are interested in hatchability, how many eggs were not hatchable to start with. That could be fertility, eggs too dirty or cracked, nutrition, how the eggs were handled, excess porosity, many different things. The people in the incubation end worry about how many hatchable eggs actually hatch.

In general if an egg is clear or development stops in the first week it's usually something that happened before incubation started. If they die toward the end it is usually something to do with the incubation. They do open enough of the unhatched eggs to try to determine what happened.

I'm not that sophisticated. I consider my hatch rate number of eggs in versus number of chicks out. I do open the ones that developed some to try to figure out what happened.

I do not use candling to determine if an egg will stink or not, I use my nose. With my green eggs I can't see much inside anyway. In all the years I've been doing this I've only had one egg go bad. It was kind of dirty, I knew I should not have set it to start with. I sterilize my incubator with a bleach solution well before I start and let it air out, I try to only handle eggs with clean hands, I do not remove the bloom from the egg, and I know better than to set dirty eggs,

 

[AmyLynn2374]

Different people consider hatch rate to mean different things. In commercial hatcheries where they may be hatching 1,000,000 each week, certain people manage the egg laying operation and different people manage the incubation. The people in the egg laying end are interested in hatchability, how many eggs were not hatchable to start with. That could be fertility, eggs too dirty or cracked, nutrition, how the eggs were handled, excess porosity, many different things. The people in the incubation end worry about how many hatchable eggs actually hatch.

In general if an egg is clear or development stops in the first week it's usually something that happened before incubation started. If they die toward the end it is usually something to do with the incubation. They do open enough of the unhatched eggs to try to determine what happened.

I'm not that sophisticated. I consider my hatch rate number of eggs in versus number of chicks out. I do open the ones that developed some to try to figure out what happened.

I do not use candling to determine if an egg will stink or not, I use my nose. With my green eggs I can't see much inside anyway. In all the years I've been doing this I've only had one egg go bad. It was kind of dirty, I knew I should not have set it to start with. I sterilize my incubator with a bleach solution well before I start and let it air out, I try to only handle eggs with clean hands, I do not remove the bloom from the egg, and I know better than to set dirty eggs,

I look at fertility rate, just to see how my boys are doing, especially this year with this being the first year breeding with my new silkie flock and selling. Then I figure out my rate of developers x hatchers, just as an overall number. The rate that I most am interested in and the rate I feel is most important to evaluate my incubation practices is my lockdown to hatch rate. If they get to lockdown, I'm counting on them to hatch. I seldom ever have quitters in the second week to lockdown. Usually it's extremely early, days 2-5 or after lockdown.

 

[Finge]

Thanks for all the advice! I just now found out you can get chickens that brood more than others that can hatch and raise chicks, though I know them raising the chicks fully or even hatching them isn't guaranteed, I think I might go that route, since a chicken will no more about hatching an egg than I ever will!

As for the goats, whom my mom has been saying I should get rid of, which i'm finally agreeing to, will be sold to good homes. Though they were a learning curve for sure! I started out with 2 bucklings, Sammy and buddy, Sammy died from FKS (floppy kid syndrome) I think, we never found out, he died the day after I got him and his brother, buddy died because me and my family didn't know we couldn't feed bucks as much grain as we did, to replace Sammy, we got johnny, after buddy, we got Janie, the two goats we have today. Janie wasn't on our property for two hours before she escaped and ran off, me and my mom were at a store buying her a halter and collar, me, my dad and uncle went out all night searching for her, she was in an entirely different county the next morning, chewed up, but still kicking and glaring at us when we got her. She survived and is like a lapdog now.

Back to chickens and roosters, I know it's not a guaranteed ill get hens and no roosters every hatch, but the same guy buying my broilers will buy some roosters, as he has a lot of chickens, and since he's buying about 18 or 19 chickens from us, he'd probably buy more from us.

and for the breed, I decided im not going to just get one breed, might as well get some diversity. Though I originally wanted RIRs because my mother said those were good friendly layers and her family had them before. Barred rocks because their breed is also known for being docile and hardy. The third breed I want will most likely be something well known in my area for becoming broody.

I really want chickens for eggs, as it'd be one less thing to buy at Walmart once our chickens get laying.

I'm really trying to convince my mother to keep a rooster because I somehow(probably not in my right mind) got attached to a rooster in my broiler clutch/flock? He's an ugly rooster, but my favorite so far when it comes to roosters, lol! Though I know it's not rather convenient to keep the meat bird if i'm not gunna eat it, but it's kinda like getting a cow or pig to raise then butcher, you can't help but get attached to the cute lil pig or calf. It's kind of like that, but my roo isn't really cute anymore, hasn't been since he was a week or two old.

 

[EggSighted4Life]

@Finge
Wow, you really did face a learning curve! Sorry for your difficulties. At 1 year old I had to rehome my goats and they were really sweet Nubian boys. The big guy discovered he could defeat my fences and their safety became a concern. Your family are troopers! I cannot say I would be that understanding with that kind of experience. It too bad that that there is so much misinformation on what to feed goats out there. It was definitely one of the trickiest decisions to make if you don't have any experience.

One note, for me I cannot produce my eggs for the same price I buy at Walmart. Feed cost me more than that. Since I have dual purpose breeds such as BR they lay about every other day. I figure (including winter molt and all) I can count on 1 dozen eggs/mo/hen. And my feed cost $0.34/lb. Of course there is NO comparison in egg quality. So if you get breeds like white leghorn or RIR you probably will get more bang for your buck since you really don't plan to eat them.

Broody hens are AWESOME! Usually Buff Orpington, Silkies, and bantam Cochin are known to be broody. Though I also have a French Black Copper Marans and a hatchery Barred Rock that both successfully brooded chicks. The Marans was the only one who I allowed to hatch "hers". And in theory you should not let them try to brood (especially sit and hatch IMO) until about 1 year old for the greatest success and to let their bodies mature fully before they lose condition like they do. They are more mature and have a different mindset. I don't know where you are, but the breeder I got my most recent Silkies from even tried to sell me a broody... but all 3 of my silkie hens were already brooding + the marans. Hatchery stock *may* be less prone to broody. But so far had a BO and BR both from hatchery do it. Just beware broody mamas are so cool in all their glory but nothing friendly about them and they generally teach the babes to avoid you. But each experience will be different. 1 mama has taught her babes to sleep at my feet! If you know what you want, be patient and look for it. While I have regretted being hasty, I haven't yet regretted waiting. And in most cases end up really happy with the end results. 1 last note about broodiness, it is hormonal and cannot be changed by leaving eggs in the box or removing them. Hens will brood air if they are broody and they don't care. And in my experience they will go broody once or twice per year. The most I put under a Silkie so far was 4 full sized chicks, and my BR has 9 chicks. It gets harder for the silkie mamas to let them all warm up as they approach her size. But this is still a learning experience for me as well and my weather in very mild.

Would you not consider having your neighbor process some of the chickens for your family to dine on? It's nice that you have someone close by. Why did you decide to raise broilers if you guys aren't gonna eat some to? Most people don't do broilers before hens. Just curious, I know we all have reasons. And when you talk about keeping one.. are they Cornish Cross? Beware of the really friendly cockerels.. my experience is they are the ones who become the biggest challenge later on because they don't fear you and fear in the chicken world is equal to respect. And the perceived friendliness is actually confidence on the part of the bird. Also note how a 4 month or 6 month old cockerel behaves will be much different than a mature rooster. And they may seem all docile until the day the "gotta protect the hens from the perceived threat (you)", switch suddenly flips at say 8 months old and again later on. It will vary for each one though. And since you mention Wally I will say that I would NOT feed their "Egg Maker" (15%) protein to my chickens. And if you are raising chicks and mamas I suggest a flock raiser instead of layer (with oyster shell on the side for layers). Too much calcium *can* (doesn't mean will) cause kidney issues as well as stunt the growth and actually delay laying in developing (non laying) birds. The Wally feed is cheap but at what cost? I'm sure there are plenty who use it and never have or NOTICE a problem. So I'm sharing personal preference but with scientific reasons.

Since you have shown the ability to keep animals but know when it's time to find them new homes and actually do it... I might consider letting you keep a boy with the understanding that IF it becomes a problem for ANYONE in the family, that be it home or freezer he MUST go.

Also wanted to say.. AS a parent (especially of a teen), I'm honored that you are doing something productive with your time. And that you are thinking of reinvesting your $ not just asking gimme gimme! With the goats going, more room for a cow!

 

[Finge]

Yeah, though it was worst heartache, I don't regret getting them, it was a great experience, none the less.

ah, I can buy a dozen for 1.80 at stores, and could probably sell my eggs to what neighbors I have, and to the people in my grandpa's neighborhood since they don't have many stores nearby. and if that's the case, might need to get leghorns and RIRs to start my flock and then get more if I can handle it.

That's what i'm thinking, to keep a few broilers for dinner, but I got these broilers for free from the FFA, but had to promise to bring them to a fair, and afterwards we could do as we pleased with them. The fair had a premium auction where you could make money out of them, but still keep them after said auction, we didn't know that there was a certain weight the chickens had to be for them to make it, and we didn't make it, but it was a good experience, and they also had show chicken there, and some rather friendly and beautiful roosters. My dad's now 100% on board with getting a rooster, my mom's more open to the idea as well.

And really, getting broilers as a way to start up in chicken keeing, is a bad idea, since really they can be a big turnoff when watching them grow from cute chicks to ugly adults, and the way they just sit down and never get up unless you move 'em or put food away from them.

and for brooders, I had asked on facebook about broody hens, and buff orpingtons and Silkies go broody more often. And I was never told that, i'll definitely have to keep on it and watch them if I get some if they start going broody. I heard that you can discourage them from going broody, so I might be able to do that until they reach maturity.

and I've always been like this, I hate asking for money when it comes to anything, and always tried to pay my parents back if I didn't bring my money when we went shopping and they bought me a toy or a game, which they absolutely hate for some reason. This way I can provide food and money for myself when needed from chickens, though it'd be a while before they produce since I plan on raising chicks to make them more human friendly.

 

[Tenrec]

A silkie will hatch anything, even a goose egg, and do a better job than artificial incubation 99 percent of the time. Lotta people keep those just for broodies. I've been told even the roosters have been known to brood, but I wouldn't bank on that...I never saw it myself. They are exceptionally sweet and are easier to make into lap chickens, not to mention very soft...This doesn't mean the roosters are total neuters, though. I've still gotten naughty roo behavior out of silkies, though most of my boys were sweet. If you want a very pretty silkie, you will probably have to buy either hatching eggs, unsexed chicks, or a pair/trio which means you will almost definitely get a silkie roo or two with your hens. If you want hatchery quality, you should be able to get just hens.

The silkies I had a while back were /excellent/ mothers. The only downside is that they're banties, so you can't put as many eggs under there. Gotta watch out for those feathered feet, too...They can get like gross wet socks in a nasty chicken run.

 

[EggSighted4Life]

Here is one chicken comparison chart, though there are several breeds not included...
http://www.sagehenfarmlodi.com/chooks/chooks.html

The reds would probably be good for eggs and for your neighbors meat. I think Leghorn are less meaty. But the boys I saw were surprisingly big. Also heard the boys often have nasty attitudes. But my female, even though flighty and avoiding human contact was still very cool. Everyone who came over thought she looked great. It was her big pretty comb on her semi small body. It was very striking to see and she had personality to. I wouldn't have a whole flock of them, but I don't really plan to have a whole flock of any 1 bird. My experience with reds says they are confident and curious birds. And remember lighter breeds in general will lay more eggs, eat less feed, and be LESS likely to go broody.

I was worried about feather footed breeds since I live in the PNW. But my run is covered (the edges get gross during heavy storms) and the rest of the range is grass. I have lots of dry space between the wet ground and the lay boxes. But on rainy days the eggs do get some slight mud streaks on occasion.

I still recommend waiting until your second season to add a cockerel if you are going to. Broilers that get culled at 8 weeks will NOT be a good representation of a newly hormonal teen boy.

Another chart...
https://livestockconservancy.org/index.php/heritage/internal/chicken-chart

Sounds like you have a pretty good head on you! I'm sure you will do well.