@brucifer The silkie is fine. She's fully recovered.
That incubator is something else! No way would Stephen let me get one. He was hesitant about the little styrophoam one I got. Whenever I get hatching eggs again, I will be happy to send you some to experiment on.
That's amazing that you were able to pull off that surgery. She sure did heal fast.
With Lisa and I, I was the one who decided to get into raising chickens as a hobby. Lisa agreed and just watched at first, but as I got into it, she wanted to join in, and she started with Silkies. Our deal was that I would have the LF and she would have the Silkies. That arrangement didn't last long. She started getting into the LF as well by making deals for hatching eggs, selecting breeds, and bringing home chicks from the feed stores.
I was glad that we found a mutual hobby, but she really liked hatching, especially the day of hatching. I call it the
grab-bag effect. She eagerly awaits as hatching time approaches and just loves to see what pops out of those shells, and she loves day-old chicks in particular. First we got one styro bator, then another, then another, and then she tells me she wants a cabinet. I wasn't quite sure she would follow through on that idea, but low and behold, she did! The important thing to me though is that she's enjoying herself and having fun with this hobby, and I like that it's a mutual interest.
I can fully understand Stephen's reluctance in getting too much into hatching. It can become a time-consuming part of our hobby. However, you have a lot of pens and different poultry, so you both are doing a lot of poultry farming. Personally, I also like the farming end more than the hatching end, but for Lisa, hatching is tops.
The problem with cabinet incubators is you keep looking for reasons to fill them up. Then you got to build more pens and buy more feed.
But if you get some quail trays, you could be eating fine cuisine every week.
@Tabasco Jack , I know what you mean by fine cuisine. My son was so taken with the taste of quail that I think it is the new favorite on his list. He raved and raved over it.
I looked at the six trays that came with our cabinet, and they are pheasant trays. We'll have to get larger trays for jumbo, duck, and turkey eggs. However, we also will need special trays for quail eggs. The thing about quail-egg trays is that they are stackable in this unit, so this incubator can hold a whopping 1368 quail eggs at one time, not counting the hatcher at the bottom of the unit!
I still plan to build a quail pen, but I have some projects to complete including some unexpected ones that were added to the list. However, I don't ever think I could find enough quail eggs at one time to fill the GQF unit to capacity. That number just seems insane.
One feature that I don't like about the cabinet is the hatcher. It's at the bottom of the unit, and it's impossible to view the progress of the hatching eggs without opening the cabinet door. Even with the optional glass door, you still cannot see the progress very well. What we've decided to do is use our styrofoam incubators as hatchers. That seems like a good use for them.
Is this a prepper SHTF thing or just a personal quirk?
