Getting some hatching eggs

[Katiean]

I had 2 of the styrofoam still air incubators and hatched Emus. I had 4 egs per incubator. We had 6 hatch, 1 mushy chick and 1 bad egg. I would take the eggs out each day and make them move to get back into the incubator. We would tap them and make kisses and other noises at the egg. It was tons of fun. Then I got a big incubator. All of my Ostriches hatched. I have a Jursey Giant Roo for my hens. His only fault is comming up to the doggie door and crowing. We have not had any hens go broody yet.

 

[Bess Kelly]

By far, letting my hens set and hatch them is "more fun" for me......not to mention less work! But, haven't kept chickens for about 10 yrs now and am thinking about setting up a little hen house for 6 or 8 hens. Love to watch them and interact. Especially love to collect eggs, although I'm not a big egg eater (unless in cake and cookies, etc.

).

Been looking at the feed stores as it's time for all the little chicks to arrive -- love to sit and watch them. But, they don't always have ones I want to keep at home, breeds that is.

My X-SIL used to incubate quail and pheasant. Wow, pheasant are so beautiful! But the tiny quail were just adorable. He sometimes hatched for release at hunt clubs, etc. It's a business for some people.

A friend has some extremely prolific white guinea hens.........last yr she had almost 50 hatched. Tried to give me a bunch then but, I wasn't ready for them. This spring I will be getting a few from the early hatchings. Nice part is that she will keep them at her place until they are a couple weeks old for me.

They're noisy things but, great for bugs. Oh, "watchdogs" too.

 

[Maxi'sMinis]

This is great information, thanks to all. I have been keeping the eggs at 60-70. With this warm weather and cool nights it is hard to keep a constant 60 degrees will I wait for my incubator. I have 6 hens but none are broody at this time. Should I turn the eggs until they are placed in the incubator or do they only need to be turned during incubation?

 

[Maxi'sMinis]

Yahoooo incubators here. I'll have my eggs in it by morning.

 

[Maxi'sMinis]

Ok we are incubating! I had one new digital thermometer/hygrometer on the eggs. I desided to add a regular thermometer They both read something different, several degrees difference. Just added another temp/hygro to see what it says. Makes ya go hummmm? Hard to keep them at 99.5 which to you believe?

 

[MindyLee]

Keep us posted!

I currently have 11 baby chicks born. 3 more to go! The others did'nt make it. They where fully developed but never made it out of the eggs. But the 3 eggs left a peeping!

 

[Danielle_E.]

Good luck with the incubating. We are starting in a couple of weeks for friends who want chicks

 

[Maxi'sMinis]

Candling the eggs today. Hope I get some chicks out of this batch but I must say it will be a miracle. This is hard and I'd say chickens ain't so dumb if they can hatch an egg!

 

[Maxi'sMinis]

So most of the 1st batch of eggs were not fertile. I hatched out one chick. I now have 2 Hova-Bater Genesis baters that are electronic, so much easier. I have 3 batches of eggs (about 40) and almost all of batches 2 and 3 were fertile and are developing. Tonight they are going into lockdown for hatching this Friday. I have some replacement eggs from the 1st batch (fella was nice to send me replacements) that will be hatching Mothers Day weekend. So excited, it is the neatest thing watching them hatch