When to gather eggs for the incubator?

[chicken farm]

I just bought a 48 egg incubator and two heat lamps (100w and 150w). I think it’s a good incubator, temperature control and alarm, humidity control and alarm and it can turn the eggs.
I have never used an incubator before; I have always let the hens hatch them naturally. I have decided to start using an incubator because every year one of the hens sits on the eggs and as soon as half of the eggs hatch she stops sitting on the rest, so I normally have 5-6 chicks a year, 3 of the chicks die from getting squashed(even when they are seperated with just mum), and I am left with 2 boys and 1 girl, so after I get rid of the roosters I am left with 1 new hen per year if i am lucky, this has happened the same way for the last 4 years.

So I got a new rooster and put him in with my five hens, and I put my original rooster in with my ducks until I can put him with the offspring of my new rooster and my hens, I am doing this to promote genetic diversity as my original rooster is closely related to my current hens, i.e son/brother/uncle.

Once my chicks are 6 weeks old they will be moved out of my garage and into there own hen house with an enclosed yard until they are fully grown.

because I have a rooster in with my hens full time my question is can I gather eggs for the incubator anytime time of the year or do I have to weight until the hens start to sit before I can gather them?

 

[nbenevento]

As long as your rooster is doing his job and the eggs are fertile, you can incubate them anytime you want. Save them up for a few days to get a good batch together so you don't have a staggered hatch. Keep them in a cool, not cold, place for up to 5 to 7 days and then start cooking!

 

[chicken farm]

thanks.

because its winter here and the days are still getting shorter I am only getting one egg a day from one of my girls, the shortest day of the year is a week away, after the days start getting longer the hens start laying more eggs, i will start saveing the eggs for the incubator when i am getting 4-5 eggs a day.

I don’t now what breed Goldy because she is a mix but I do know that my good old hen Margo is an isa brown, my new rooster is a naked neck but thankfuly he doesn’t have the naked neck jean, that’s him as my avatar, I named him leonard after the rooster on the good life.

I don’t care about crossing breeds as long as the original breeds have a good reputation. Can you cross a naked neck with an isa-brown?

 

[ozexpat]

thanks.

because its winter here and the days are still getting shorter I am only getting one egg a day from one of my girls, the shortest day of the year is a week away, after the days start getting longer the hens start laying more eggs, i will start saveing the eggs for the incubator when i am getting 4-5 eggs a day.

I don’t now what breed Goldy because she is a mix but I do know that my good old hen Margo is an isa brown, my new rooster is a naked neck but thankfuly he doesn’t have the naked neck jean, that’s him as my avatar, I named him leonard after the rooster on the good life.

I don’t care about crossing breeds as long as the original breeds have a good reputation. Can you cross a naked neck with an isa-brown?

in the world of chickens you can cross anything - you just never know the characteristics of the chicks. A NN should give you chicks a little larger than the isa-brown.

have fun.

 

[chicken farm]

So by selective breeding I should be able to produce my own variety of chickens like you do with plants? by only selecting the ones that have the good attributes that you want, I.e. hot and cold weather resistant, good layers, produce big eggs, large hens and at the same time small roosters.

Cross the breeds and get F1, chose the hens with the things you like and then breed the F1’s together to get the next generation F2, and keep doing this every year until about F7 or F8 when you end up with a result that is stable with no variation.

does that sound right?