Week Two!

I'm a day late on this update. Merry Christmas everyone!

I candled the eggs today-- all of them, and threw out nine of them. Two were clear (infertile), one of the small white ones from the second seller, and the other, unfortunately, an infertile Marans egg. I also tossed some partially developed ones that quit on me.

Say Goodbye to My Little Friends-- 7 of today's discards

I have left:
11 Marans eggs (three iffy and getting the benefit of the doubt)
9 Americaunas from my first seller.
5 random eggs from the second seller (three of which are iffy, but are getting another chance)

The eggs from the first two sellers are both due the 1st at about 6 am. I have been having temperature issues, so they may be a little late or early. I will be 'locking down' (not moving the eggs or opening the incubator' on Wednesday, which is good timing, as my nephew is getting married that day and I won't be home to move them anyway!

Tuesday night I will be removing the eggs that should be hatching from their egg cartons and let them prepare for hatching. I have hatched in the egg cartons before and have lost a few chicks from them hatching upside down. I have kept them in the cartons thus far just to improve the ease of rotating the eggs.

This is the point at which I start getting really nervous about having any of the chicks hatch at all.

Week One!

A week ago today I set the first eggs.

I set some Marans eggs today-- twelve of them. They are a glorious color and I really hope we get some beautiful chicks out of that bunch, though most are promised to my mom.

I also candled the eggs today and I had to throw away six eggs that were all definite infertile eggs. When I candled them they were completely clear. They were all from the second seller. Shocking, right? I'm not surprised. Another reason I will not be using that seller again.

The good news is that I had some obvious development and even got to see one embryo jump in response (I guess) to the light. It was about the size of the tip of my pinky.

My camera is on the fritz, so I will have to post candling pictures at a later date.

I have 32 eggs total in the incubator now. I have thrown out a total of 9 eggs due to mailing breakage and infertility.

Day Two

The incubator temperature is finally exactly where I want it. There has been some fluctuation, but not enough to worry me as it has always been between 99.2 and 100.1. Fluctuation isn't great, but as the higher temperature was for only a short time, I have hopes that it won't be a problem.

My incubator: all wrapped up! 

There is definitely an issue with an incubator that has no insulation. I have to keep the incubator wrapped in a blanket at all times, though I leave the air intakes completely open and unblocked, it wouldn't do to suffocate the little chicks. I've considered knitting a cozy for it, but I don't have the time right now to do it.

I am still tilting the incubator back and forth at least three times during the day. I make sure that I'm gentle and that the angle does affect all of the eggs. I don't see why this shouldn't work. It's not THAT different from what a turner would do.

I'm afraid there will not be many interesting pictures for a little while, as I do not intend to crack into the incubator to handle the eggs or candle them (look through them with a light to see how they are developing) until this weekend. I will try to get pictures then.

Here's a neat fact: at about 42 hours incubation the chicks' hearts start beating. Isn't that amazing?

Oh, PEANUTS!

OK, so, proving that I'm a mom who ends up watching more Disney channel then grown-up TV, I'm going to burst into song via Hannah Montana and declare:

"Nobody's Perfect."

Now that I have that off my chest I'll confess.

I just bid as a joke. On a lark. I shouldn't have done that. Because I won.

I JUST BOUGHT

100 + GOLD SPECKLED COTURNIX QUAIL HATCHING EGGS!!!!!

That's pretty crazy, even for me. I mean, even if half hatch, what am I going to do? And they start laying on their own in six weeks, so we're talking worse than mice! I'm going to over-run with cricket-sized chicks!

Maybe it's time to go gourmet and start eating quail eggs?

I'm half laughing hysterically and half actually hysterical. This is a Bonnie-type disaster! 

We'll just have to see what can be done with it.

I've never eaten quail... 

Incubator: Anticipation

I am eagerly awaiting the arrival of my incubator. Of course, if I end up with not eggs to put in it, I'll have to wait even longer. I may even have to beg some off of my young friend who raises chickens and generously offered to give us two of his-- which, of course, we couldn't take advantage of! Too sweet, really.

I don't want to reinvent the wheel, so I decided I want to share a idiot proof incubating site that already has all the how-tos, so I didn't have to make it myself:
http://www.howtoincubate.com/

There's another one that I knew of a few years ago, I'll post it when I find it again. It was pretty neat, with lots of candling pictures.

(Candling is when you shine a light through an egg to see the shadow of the embryo through the shell... pretty tough in darker eggs, as you can imagine! It's a blast to do with the kids, because they just giggle like crazy to see the chicks move around and chick and jump. I've had a fun time telling my boys about when I had them in my tummy and they would do the same things. It would be so cool if we could just shine a light through to see the baby move in people, wouldn't it?)

I'm trying to decide where I want to put the incubator. It's tough, because, with the three boys, we get a lot of traffic. The laundry room seems like a good place for it, but it doesn't hold a steady temperature overnight, and that's no good. There's the kitchen, but, well.... chickens smell. I have a sensitive nose, too. Blech! There's the boy's playroom, which may be the best bet as long as I can put it someplace out of casual reach... AND where the cats won't be overly curious. I have this horrible vision in my head of a cat sleeping on the nice warm incubator and frying my eggs by lying on the thermostat.

I suppose they could always go in my room. Hmmm. Did I mention that, to me, incubators with eggs SMELL?

I kid you not, I can smell a dirty diaper across the house. I'm crazy that way... well, a lot of ways, but in this way in particular.

I canNOT wait for my incubator to arrive!

Before You Buy Hatching Eggs

Gorgeous chick hatched from Gabbard Farm egg 2008

The first time I incubated chicken eggs and discovered the bounty that is ebay in the hatching eggs area I immediately grabbed up some of everything. The result was that I got mixed breed chickens, some big, some bantams, some ducks, of which none hatched, turkeys, of which none hatched, and a bunch of goose eggs. Not only did I over pay on some of them, but I also had to do what's called a 'staggered hatch.' Not all of the eggs were due at the same time, which meant that I had to continuously monitor and play with humidity-- which is why none of my ducks or turkeys hatched. It's a miracle that I had a perfect hatch from the goose eggs. We ended up with seven goslings and about 19 bantams and larger chicks. Not bad, over all.

A mutt bantam chick from an ebay seller 2008

So, now, I'm much more careful about buying chicken eggs. These are my little pieces of advice.

1) Look at the shipping cost first. $20 of shipping on 6 eggs is too much (unless they are ultra rare must-have chickens)

2) Look at seller feedback-- do the sellers know what their fertility rate is? Do they have positive feedback?

3) If you just want any old chickens, or do you want chickens with specific qualities? In my experience, it's worth it to pay for purebreds for the most part if you care about breed. Mutts can be really interesting, too. And... odd... I remember a certain turken mix I had... it was bald, except for the tips of its wings. Cute in an ugly kind of way.

chicks just hatched 2008

4) Take into account the expenses of hatching-- incubator, water, electricity, eggs-- and take out the fact that about 50% will be roosters and you may have a low hatch rate. Are you comfortable spending that amount if you end up with one chicken? If not, then don't go with that deal.

I like to try to balance my shipping and actual egg expense. I figure right now it's about average to run at $2 an egg counting shipping. That can be pretty expensive! Some sellers will combine shipping, and some will not.

My other piece of advice? Only bid on one batch of eggs at a time so you don't end up spending too much or having to do a staggered hatch like I did my first time!

Incubating Thoughts

So, I took the plunge and I ordered an incubator. I actually ended up not going with either the Hovabator type or the gorgeous Brinsea, but a middle territory that, hopefully, will be the incubator love of my life. I got a Clear Top Turbo Fan Incubator from ebay. It has a digital thermostat, which, after having a Hovabator, was a must for me.

Don't get me wrong-- Hovabators make a wonderful first incubator. I just don't think they clean-up as well as plastic models, and are fragile for those of us with young children who tend to climb on everything.

BTW: Brinsea is having an incredible sale on their incubators right now. With our budget, it was still out of reach for me, but I highly recommend investing in the Brinsea Octagon 20 Eco with the turner. Super nice!

I am looking forward to trying out my new incubator, which leads to looking into hatching eggs. There are some really great resources for finding hatching eggs online:

BackyardChickens.com
Egg-bid.com
Ebay.com (search: hatching eggs)
hatchingeggs.net/
gabbardhatchingeggs.com/

One of my favorite chickens off all time came from an egg I hatched from Gabbard Farms. They have really great quality chicken eggs.

Of course, that doesn't even branch into waterfowl and geese. But, first things first, I start with chickens!