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ooo bella that sounds fun!
but be mindful you may end up with a few boys in that bunch! (its near 50/50 sex split on eggs) enjoy them though! i love the little fuzzbutt babies (that said NOOO more in this house for a while! 7 months strait of it haha)
I have hudini sitting on at least 12 eggs and casper is broody over nothing, i did have smokey sitting on eggs but roosting tonight so i took the eggs. will be interesting to see how many hatch, i think i will sell them though - cant deal with a lot of baby chickens- again!
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Dansta I think we would end up eating our roosters :). We can't keep them due to council laws and you are right that they could be 50/50. The guy I got the eggs off of, said he had had some 70/30, but yeah, either way there are likely to be boys.
What does everyone else do with their roosters?
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Sounds like so much fun, Bella! We loved having chicks, but I can't see us doing it again unless we lose both our girls at once.
Let us know when they hatch. Photos would be good!
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We have had 5 faverolles hatch so far. Pretty good for two new girls and a boy. So atleast we know they are fertile. Just hoping a few more hatch and are just taking their time. Of course the cats are terrorising them by sitting on the incubator.
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How cool Astrid! Jen I will keep you posted. I will try to link a photo here if I can do it with my phone :) 2878
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we have two roosters (in the middle of a rural "town") and we just let both go. no one cares we have a corus of rosters in the morning - even when cocrellhead goes off at 12.30am on weekends haha
hopeing to sell/give away any more chicks - if we kept of the eggs being sat on and roosters hatched our neighbour would make some chicken soup out of them
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I will ask my neighbors as time goes on if I can keep one perhaps. Tbh, I reckon it will be my own hubby who will be the biggest pita about it.
So here's a question for you all in the know. When u t counting the days of incubation do you count the first day you put the eggs into the incubator as day1? Or do you wait till they have been in for a full 24 hrs and call that day 1? I am wondering because I want to candle the light eggs on day 3 for the light colored ones and then day 8 and 14 as well as 18. So how do I know when day 3 is? Also, when u do it, do you take the lid off the incubator and just pull them out one by one and leave the lid off in between? Or do u put the lid on and off each time? Do u make noted on the eggs? Do you move about their position in the incubator, or leave them in the same place?
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First day in the incubator is day zero.
You have about 20 minutes to candle eggs. I tend to take them all out (or out in batches if putting through a lot). Keep the lid on the incubator, keep the heat and the humidity in.
Sometime I mark the eggs, helps with turning, but with our new machine there is not much point. I sometimes mark what I think is viable or not, just out of interest for myself to see what hatches.
Don't really bother with moving about in the incubator.
For there last few days, do not move them, don't turn them at all. The chick positions itself to hatch and it can stuff things up for them to even move them a bit. When we stop turning, we take out the eggs and prep the incubator for hatching, then make sure we put them back the same way.
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Thanks astrid! Very helpful.
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So does anyone else struggle with wanting to look at their eggs all the time? I candled my eggs tonight, cos they were day three. I wanted to see if I could see anything. I think I can! I can see a very small blob in about the centre of the yolk. I can also see the air sacs in all of them. On Some of them, around the little blob, I am pretty sure that I can see a small network of veins. I don't know how I am gonna wait another 18 days! Omg! Lol! I am not cut out for this!
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Bella I know the feeling. I have my first batch in at the moment but thank God the wait is almost over and I expect my first hatches on Wednesday. My temp has been all over the place however as has the humidity (what I get from using an ebay cheapie) I've got 5 light sussex due out soon and 24hrs later 12 orpingtons (what I am really waiting on) Ive now got 3 plymouth rocks eggs, 3 buff orpingtons, 2 brown leghorns, another 4 light sussex and 12 rhode island reds at day 6 in. Unfortunately alot are showing they are clear except the buff orpingtons which I am happy about as the last few I put in were all clear (they were the first eggs for the season but so wasn't expecting them to be fertile)
Once the first lot hit about day 5-7 I started candling them most nights. I had not done it before so was really keen to learn what I was looking for. The sussex eggs were the most advanced so they were the ones I candled the most for experience and all 6 were fertile and I now have 5 ready to hatch on Wednesday. I may have killed one or it could have died anyway I don't know but I cracked it open today and it looked like it arrested at about day 10 or 11. If you can see veins then I'd say you have chickens developing. At day 3 I found there was not much to see and some I thought were clear turned out to be developing normally.
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Bella Im hoping to sell some of my roo's as the buff orpingtons are hard to get. I know of a few people searching for Roo's but the ones I can't sell I'll eat. I am going to buy one of those things of ebay (like a guilten) and just pray DH will kill them for me. Once they are dead I'm happy to do with gutting, plucking etc. I don't know how to do it so will have to get my parents or google lol. It solves 2 problems for us (the unwanted Roo's) and I worry about all the hormones shop brought chickens are fed. I know they are 6weeks of age when they are killed to eat which is just aweful when you think of how big a 6week old chicken is that is home grown. I guess I'll do them at about 6months and hopefully have some unhormone chicken. Probably wont taste as good as a shop brought one but surely they will be more healthy.
I'm actually really worried about loosing alot of chickens in the hatch. They have just gone into lock down but Ive read alot of stuff about drowning them with too much humidity or drying them out without enough. I sussex were just free eggs I was given but the orpingtons I'm really praying I have good hatch rates as I want them to breed from especially the buffs as thats what I prodominately have as really want some new bloodlines to add to my brood.
How many chooks does everyone have? I've got 19 including all my chickens. I don't have many adults just 2 trios. I'm currently restoring a coop which has 3 compartments and I want to extend it to make 6 pens so these new chickens can go in there once they get booted out of the house. My chooks are usually free range during the day but I lock them up overnight or when I go away.
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Sorry double post!
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i havent candled my eggs yet. but she has 11 under her...mine are bantoms. but i dunno what breed they are. plus my three red girls too. question can a bantom breed with a normal sized chicken? what happens there? as i'll let my three big girls in with my others - and we have two bantom roosters...
I think i may leave any chicks in the shed this time and let them go - just keep the dog away from them- and see how we go. i think 7 months of chicks in the house is enough. plus i may have a neighbour - if he gets his chook run up who may want them but we'll see. i have two other girl who are on the lay - and only semi broody - i'm collecting 4 eggs aday which is nice seeing as its been none in the cold weather.
down the track i may be getting some gunnie foul off another neighbour - they will have a crack at snakes, which is what we need around here and can act as gard dogs too. wont say no to that, lol.
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Bella as for marking the eggs I write with led pencil what breed they are so BO for buff orpington PR for plymouth rock etc. Then on the opposite side I write the date they were laid. I use these marks for turning purposes as well as to know who's eggs are fertile and who's aren't. I dont mark which ones I need to check to see if are clear. I didn't throw my clear eggs out until about day 12 or something like that so gave them a good chance to show something up. Probablem I am currently having is the RIR eggs are very brown and spotty and they are very hard to tell/see
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Hey girls, thanks for all the feedback. I candled again tonight! Lol! On most of them it was clear to see a network of blood vessels. On a few you coul very clearly see the baby with the pin ***** of dark colour for the eyes. I marked them tonigh with chalk cos it was all I had! Lol! I just gave a tick for the obvious ones and a star if it was super clear with eye visible etc. there were about 4 that I was uncertain about. I am honna try to leave them alone for a few days if I can, but my track record isn't great! Lol! Oh dear! Very exciting tho to see the babies developing so clearly! Can't wait! Only 17 days to go!
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Sounds very promising Bella. My first batch are day 20 today. I expected to see some cracks now but so far nothing. I thought I heard a cherp from one this morning and I think I may have seen a few eggs rattle but maybe it was wishful thinking. I also candled my others eggs I put in on the 3rd September and am a little disappointed with the fertility. Most of them were brought eggs and of them only 1/4 of them have something in them. I'll give them another 5days before feeding them to the dogs. Out of the 30 eggs I put in I think only about 7 will make it to the end.
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Oh mildez, that sounds disappointing!
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