Who needs a hen?

[chic_a_lay]

my hens (@20) are now nearly three years old and haven't shown any interest in setting on any future generations.

save...megpie. she is trying soooo hard. maybe this will be the time that it works for her. she's recently been joined in the setting area by donnareed, but, i'm not sure donna's heart is in it. ...this is her first try, maybe, she'll still get the hang of it.

i've had issues. too many hens for one rooster, and a suspicious rooster. plus, i'm new to raising chickens, too.

as for the rooster, (a large beautiful dominekker) either he's shooting blanks or the eggs are no good.

meggie's gone thru 3 of his batches and none of the eggs ever developed.

long story short. a friend sent me some fertile eggs from his coop for meggie and a new rooster for my girls.

i set the new guy up in a pen with a select few chicks i wanted the eggs to come from and waited.

i'd finally decided i wouldn't wait for the hens to come around and that i'd might as well give it a try myself. who needs a hen, anyway?

when i had saved enough (eggs and money) i went to the feed store and bought a "cheep" incubator on sale.

today, meggie's about halfway thru her setting cycle with the adopted eggs and 36 of the new roosters' efforts are safely tucked inside my new incubator.

the problem?

i don't know how to incubate eggs.

...sure, i remember doing it in grade school. but this is for real....
so, PLEASE, if you have one good tip that would save me the heartache of trial and error, i'd appreciate it if you would post it here for me.

your tips and advice are what keeps me thinking i can do this.


thanks,
love,
d

 

[Puddin Fluff]

Overall, my only experience hatching, Keep the temp aroung 99-100, keep water in the incubator, mark the calendar and try to be patient! Our first go round we had 30% of the original eggs we set hatch. If you count after we candled at 8 days and threw out those not developing, we had closer to 50%. We tried later with Quail and had 100%.

Hens do it all the time. Some hatch and some don't. The hardest part is not tinkering and just waiting.

best of luck

 

[moomoodiddy]

if you google how to incubate eggs there are a ton of instructions that are great and u can make a 20 dollar incubator

 

[Puddin Fluff]

You can also do a search on this site and probably find more detailed and better advice than mine

 

[moomoodiddy]

x2 i would look at several diff sites and combine info good luck i am hoping to do an experiment with an incubator soon ive hatched a yon of chicks under a hen but never in a bator good luck

 

[moomoodiddy]

oh and megpie sounds so cute and a good mama its funny because my nickname is megpie