Utah!

[Sphinx]

Yeah, I'm in Clinton, which is on the border between Davis and Weber Counties. Thanks for the offer though!

My dh managed to rig up a 100 watt light bulb to use as a heating element, and that is going surprisingly well. It seems to be much steadier than the failing heating element was- I was constantly having to fuss with the thermostat. With this, it's been nice and steady. That makes me think it has been going out ever since I set eggs. The only awkward thing is I borrowed the incubator from a friend. Of course, she'd bought it used, and her first hatch failed completely, so maybe it never worked right. But still, I feel bad giving her back something that I know is broken.

Meanwhile, I'm toying with the idea of having him build me an incubator. I think he could do a really great job. My Brinsea is really nice, but it only holds 7 eggs. I thought that was a good thing, that it would hold me back from incubating too many eggs, but IT'S HOLDING ME BACK!!!!!!

 

[Cynthia12]

Quote:
I hear you on the Brinsea! lol..

Well, that is great that the bulb is working! And remember this..that mama hen gets off and on her eggs anyway in the beginning..sooo..you will probably be ok.

 

[Cynthia12]

Look what finally happened.

We were leaving, and she was heading for the nest boxes! I could hardly wait to get home..I just knew I was going to find me a cute little pullet egg. Sure enough, right beside my white leghorns.

I thought it might be a double yolker!

Guess what I had for lunch..on toast.

 

[Sphinx]

Wow, that was her first egg?! That's enormous!!!!

 

[La Casa de Pollo]

Quote:
That is AWESOME!!!!! To get a double on the first one. No wonder it took her a bit to get that one laid haha! Congrats, I feel your excitement

 

[Sphinx]

I am utterly lacking in self control, so I tried to candle the eggs last night that are in my macgyvered incubator. There are 6 in there- 3 from my shipped eggs and 3 from my neighbor. They were about 80 hours in.

I'm pretty sure I saw the beginnings of veining in one of my shipped eggs! The egg that I dropped definitely had veining. I'm pretty sure it won't make it, but you never know. The other two neighbor eggs looked clear to me.

However, I'm not doing anything more other than turning and adjusting humidity til Saturday. I hope. I'm terrible with not candling though. Maybe if I put it here, in a public forum, I'll stick to my word and not do anything til Sat.

 

[kimmypie]

I posted on another thread, but our HOA now allows for chickens (the city always has) so in the spring we really will be getting some chicks. I'm still just as mystified about where to actually get baby chicks though. LOL I don't want straight run, we can only have girls.

 

[Sphinx]

Kimmy, most of the local breeders are only going to sell straight run chicks because sexing chicks can be very, very difficult and the breeders don't have the training to professionally sex a chick.

If you go to the feed stores, you'll get "hatchery quality" chickens, but they'll be sexed with a 90%+ accuracy rating. As long as you're not trying to show your chickens, it doesn't matter if you have pet quality chickens.

IFA, Cal-Ranch etc will have chicks. I think they start around March or so. I got 5 of my first chickens from IFA, and I was very pleased with them. All five were very healthy, pretty pullets.

Congrats on your HOA allowing you chickens!

 

[La Casa de Pollo]

Quote:
We got ours at IFA and Cal ranch last spring, they were advertised as pullets with the disclaimer that a roo could be possible, but we ended with no roosters out of 10 bought. My neighbor got 6 and ended with 1 roo and put it on KSL. We have had good luck with our chickens as far as their health, just had one that turned mean so we gave her away. It seems like there are also a lot of people on here that have fertile eggs if you post when you are ready

 

[kimmypie]

I'd really love to get a broody hen at the same time as the chicks so she could do all the work for me but I know chances of that happening are very low!

I have heard good and bad about IFA/CAL Ranch so I've been hesitant. I know that local breeders can't sex them (unless they have some sex linked traits) but it sure would be nice if they could so I could support a local breeder!