Viva Las Vegas!

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Hey all! Just joined the forums today!

Been in Vegas for 8 years as of today, grew up in Washington State. I've had all sorts of animals growing up, but nothing outside of normal household pets as an adult.

Last night I went on a run and when I got back into my neighborhood I saw a hen nearly get hit by a car. I finished my run and went to check on her. She's a Rhode Island Red as far as I can tell and super friendly and healthy. I out signs up in the neighborhood and even a CL ad yo try to find an owner, but if she isn't claimed by Saturday, I'll be starting my plans for a pen and coop... and likely getting her some company in the near future.

Just thought I would say hi. I am sure I will be frequent in here when I know for sure what our plans are. I'm thinking it'll be most likely that we keep her, but I don't want to get my hopes up if someone actually wants her back.

Jet
 
Well I bought my incubator and waiting for it to arrive. I'm going to do some initial testing then I found someone who will sell me fertile eggs locally. If any of the eggs hatch (Keep your fingers crossed) I will most likely be asking a dollar or two on the chicks just to break even on the cost of the eggs. These will be mixed breed chicks and after reading how hard it is to hatch from an incubator, I'm not even sure Ill have any chicks the first time around. SO if anyone is interested in them, just let me know. They of course will be straight run.

If your wondering why I'm doing the initial testing of eggs, I want to order some specialty eggs and want to have as much experience as I can get hatching so my live rate will improve. Some of the eggs Ive found are pretty pricy and I am hoping for some success under my belt.

If anyone else has fertile eggs and is willing to give it a go with a SUPER newbie on hatching let me know. Cant promise anything but your welcome to let me try. The chicks will be returned to you once they hatch.
 
You can get a dozen eggs REAL cheap by going to Trader Joe's and buying a dozen of their fertile eggs. Yes, they are fertile. I've hatched quite a few. Just dig to the back of the bin to get the freshest eggs possible. (You're looking for the highest 3-digit number on the end of the box to signify the latest packing date)
 
That's my plan b but I thought it would be better to get day old or two day old eggs from hens that have already hatched chicks knowing the fertility of the eggs and freshness. But thanks for posting that Trader Joes is still selling fertile eggs and that there is a decent chance of a hatch.

Barb
 
The other nice thing about hatching TJ's eggs -- especially if you're a newbie -- is that the white shells are GREAT for candling. You'll not have any guesswork as to who's in-house and who's not as it's really easy to see veins and embryos.

Good luck!
 
OK I bought trader joe eggs with a stamp date of 11-2. That was the freshest ones I could find. Right now I'm getting them to room temperature then will pop them in the incubator. WOW is the incubator heating up my house. If the garage wasnt so up and down on the temp, I would put the bator out there.
 
What kind of incubator are you using? An incubator shouldn't be significantly heating up the house....unless either you have a really hot bator or a very small house! I use an ancient Miller (now known as LG) that's basically a Styrofoam box with heating element and the heat stays pretty much in the confines of the Styrofoam. Are your vents open on the incubator?

Embryo development rate was in the high 90% for TJ eggs for me. Unfortunately, that wasn't my hatch rate as my first dozen got inadvertently cooked in the bator when I was misreading the thermometer and the temps spiked to 106 for a prolonged period.... lots of blood rings and no further development.

Once I got rid of the faulty thermometer I threw a TJ's egg in with the next batch of marans eggs and faverolle eggs. It hatched. (So that would be 100% hatch rate on that batch)
 
I'm using the the hovabator set at 100 degrees. I figured out the Julian date as the eggs being 4 days old so there is hope. I bought a thermoter hygrometer unit that reads numeric so it hopefully will be accurate
 

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