Who's Incubating in Nov. 2011 ?

[EM Squared Farms]

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Aw, your chickies are cute !

What are Polish Top Hats ? A special kind of Polish? I named my vaulted skull Splash Silkie "Top Hat".

Our Marans parents are copper black hen x copper blue splash roo. We have one blue Marans pullet growing up. She's so beautiful.

I think my Marans chickies are about the same age as yours, maybe a little older. I don't think they have any chickie fuzz left, but I still call them chickies.

Yeah, our summer in FL was pretty dry for a while there. Almost had no pasture area for the goats left ! Luckily the chickens have plenty of shade from the large laurel oak tree anad their houses/plants.

 

[EM Squared Farms]

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Hey, I've never seen a bantam cochin....do you have a pic ? It would be cute to see a bantam one.

What's a Hovabator ? Your special incubator or a name brand incubator ?

How did you get 40 ? Do you order them or do you hens produce that many ?

 

[EM Squared Farms]

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We keep our chickies in the house (even though we live in FL).

They do get moved out to a workshop after a few weeks. The weather is so cold this morning (70s) !!

We eventually want a "chicken barn" so holiday company will have a place to stay. Sorry, chickies came first this year. Maybe the cousins can sleep in the boys' room this holiday season.

 

[EM Squared Farms]

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I know my husband would love to hear more !!

We have a "chicken barn" on our list, right after a few things for the goats (we are expecting baby goats by Christmas).

 

[EM Squared Farms]

Hi, this message is for "everyone" on this thread:

I've noticed quite a few of you "set" a good number of eggs....


Why do you do this ? (save them up until you get the desired # of eggs) - So they are all the same age ? So you can use the automatic egg turner dohickey ?

I thought the viability of an egg to hatch decreases the longer you wait to incubate it ?

Well, thank you everyone for your comments. I feel much less alone hatching eggs this winter. It's so much fun to know that so many of you are hatching too, even though in more "bulk" quantities.

We just add in eggs in the incubator as we get them.

I've been thinking about why I can't remember if we had any eggs last winter and now I know why...we didn't have them laying yet since they were young chickies in Aug. or 4 mo. old in Oct......so no one was at 6 mo. yet and starting to lay (just our layers). I think we divided out the breeding pens just in time for them to begin laying eggs.

Well, this will be our second season or incubating eggs. We started last spring from April to June. Our list is definitely smaller for the number of eggs we are going to hatch as it took much longer to place homes for all the chickens (still have maybe a handful of roos from each breed still to find homes).

Look forward to seeing all your chickie pics in the chickie threads !! I just love chickies that are different than the ones we raise.

Thanks everyone for sharing and hope to chat with you guys again !

 

[ChickenCanoe]

I hope to have my new incubator built this week and if I do, I'll probably be hatching through winter.
I started breeding Black Penedesencas this year. Poor success with a LG but 100% with broodies.
How long into winter I go will depend on the severity.
I have an unheated, uninsulated building with a couple big brooders in it. I ran them from extension cords last winter for chicks I bought so I'm trying to get permanent electric out there before the first hard freeze.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

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The most I set was 30. I think over the long haul it's simpler to have a single batch of chicks the same age.
I had 7 Blk Pene girls laying almost daily so it didn't take long to get 30.
I'm going to do what you do in the future. My new incubator will have a separate hatching compartment. I also want to isolate chicks from each cock/hen pair so I'll probably add eggs each week collecting from two pairs at a time.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

I'm sick. Just came in from feeding and collecting eggs.
I was placing the egg from my best pair into the carton I've been saving for the last week to incubate and it was empty.
My wife cooked them for breakfast.
I isolated the hen from the flock so I could identify her eggs. Now I have to start all over. I love eggs but I couldn't even eat them.

Way to go DW. Mixed breed eggs sitting there and she cooks the $35/doz. eggs.

I'm sure the dates, hen numbers and rooster numbers written on the eggs meant nothing.
I think it was on purpose.

 

[DUCKGIRL89]

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im sorry, but thats just slightly funny...

 

[pek]

i just set six shipped eggs today.