What can I hatch next? Wait, what did I just say??

[FenDruadin]

Aaaaaaarrrrrghhhhhh!!! What am I going to do? My hatch is over and I said this would be my last hatch of the year but........ my incubator is empty! There are no eggs to watch! No hatch to anticipate! No peeping to listen for! No temperature to check! No humidity to gauge!

What am I going to do?

There are lots of local farmer's around here with chicken eggs........ Hmmm....... !!

So, what should I do? I can't keep chickens. Would have to sell them. Don't have room for more ducks once my Spring shipment comes, and don't know where I'd get duck eggs anyway. But I can't just leave my incubator empty, right????

 

[Bedste]

You are cracking me up. I thought I was the only crazy chicken person. My hatch is due this Tuesday and I already have a friend saving me some fertilized eggs to start on Thursday. Does the incubator need to rest?

 

[retiredwithchicks]

Same here. My DH is going to finally lose it with me. I have 30 to go to lockdown Sat., put in 15 guinea eggs today, have more chicken eggs coming next week. That has to be IT for the year!!! I have no more room to put them into for the winter.!!!! It is as addictive as drugs or alcohol.

 

[FenDruadin]

Does the incubator need to rest?

No, but I think my dh does, lol! Also... I don't want to be brooding ducklings in winter. Dh doesn't like animals in the house (bah, humbug!), so I've agreed to do most of my brooding in the garage (after the first few days). That won't work in winter, I'm afraid, not without a much better brooder than the rubbermaid container & heat lamp I currently have.

But I don't know what to do with myself without eggs to candle and worry over. Plus, the adrenaline rush of my latest hatch is just wearing off and I think I've got withdrawal symptoms--shaking hands, a slight stutter. Twitching.

So... what should I do? Should I buy some farm fresh eggs, hatch them & sell the babies? Try to find someone with duck eggs and brave the vagaries of winter brooding? Have someone ship me something interesting? (Note to self: Husband thinks bantam roos are adorable... that doesn't mean he wants to spend the next several weekends building a bantam chicken coop...)

Or... give it up... go into detox & rehab... at least until Spring... Help!​

 

[jthayerkatz]

Or... give it up... go into detox & rehab... at least until Spring... Help!

Whats that old saying?... quitters never win.

I have already had my last hatch of the year and I have 64 eggs in the bator

so then this would be my last batch but.... I am already trying to figure out where my next eggs are going to come from

This is more addictive than any drug. there must be a twelve step system to help us right?​

 

[farmin'chick]

Step 1: Order more eggs
Step 2: Buy another styro bator on Craig's List
Step 3: Warm it up and check it out
Step 4: Wait by the mailbox
Step 5: Wait by the mailbox
Step 6: Get the eggs

Step 7: Let the eggs settle for 24 hours
Step 8: Candle the new eggs for cracks
Step 9: Set the eggs
Step 10: Watch the eggs
Step 11: Move the eggs to the hatcher
Step 12: Order more eggs....

This is my 12 step program -- works every time!

 

[HBuehler]

I thought I was the only one that buys more bators because the eggs won't fit in the 3 you already have

Wait though we say this is the last hatch of the season but if you keep adding eggs to a bator doesn't that mean that this hatch really hasn't ended yet

My last bunch a few weeks ago was my last...34 in lockdown now
another 35 or so next week 46 in another bator and about 50 in the mail...YEP it was the last hatch because the bators haven't been turned off yet.
Where is the support group where

 

[2txmedics]

My Hatch went into lockdown yesterday the 18th....today 19th day...my eggs started to pip and roll...now its midnight and Im heading to bed...still no zips....

gonna lay down and read, and then before I call it a night....go check one more time...I have to go outside and walk next door to the shop.....

 

[insiderart]

I feel your pain. I have packed up my incubators for now. I have had to make myself stay away from the auctions and hatching eggs pages!

 

[FenDruadin]

You guys are TOO funny.

Okay. I'm going to join the 12-step program:

Hello. My name is Heather. I am a hatching addict. Tomorrow I will order eggs. I'm asking you to help me choose what kind. Thank you.

Oh, and thank you for the tip. I tell DH it's the last hatch, and keep adding eggs, and the hatch never really ends. Beautiful.

Now, what to order (find, buy, trade for, whatever...). Quail! I want to try quail! I bet I can sell the babies pretty easily. ORRR... I'll bet I could find a cage on CL for cheap (like a rabbit hutch?), convert for quail, keep it under the lean-to... Do you think DH would notice? That lean-to is already crowded with: Hay for goats, straw for bedding, frames for bees, crate for ducklings, dog houses for breeding pens, lumber for new critter pens... in all that, the quail cages would look like just another bit of debris, right???

I think I need an intervention. I'm not going to get it here, though, am I?