[ricardodba]

Hi All,

Happy New Year!...

My chickens are ranging with my neighbors cockeral and I have noticed him mounting them...so im guessing the eggs i have are fertile and if i put them in my incubator they 'might' hatch??

So im planning on incubating a few of my eggs...question is When?...ideally, i want them POL or near POL ready for somtime in the spring. Is it too early to incubate now?

This is our first time at this...so its quite exctiting, especially for the kids 

Thanks.

[waterbuffalofarmer]

I think incubating at this time of year would be slightly early, the electricity bills would be through the roof, because you have to have a lamp on full time, when they're growing. Having said that a lot of people do incubate this time of year and it works well. If you started the incubation today, then count 21 days from now to hatching, plus a few more weeks under the lamp, plus getting them used to other foods, gradually introducing them to a big shed, or pasture; You might very well do it, some hens however are sold POL and don't start laying till early summer, so it really depends on everything, plus the breed. Sorry I can't be more helpful. Do let us know how you get on though?

[Victorian Farmer]

Some of us have nealey finished the first lot for March sales. There is 6 pens going at the minute as the weather has been mild. My recommendation is valentines day to start. My stock to keep is mid April

[mojocafa]

I personally think it's too early and still too much risk of an electricity power cut that's possibly due to my location. In fact I just bought 12 candles this morning in preparation!

  I generally put eggs in incubator  21 days before Easter Saturday so we have Easter chicks

[Marches Farmer]

I set eggs as soon as we finish lambing, which gives a few weeks' respite before I have more young stock to look after.  It also means the nights are generally warm enough for the chicks to go outside (in suitable accommodation) without heat once they get to three weeks old, to leave the brooders clear for the next batch.

[Eve]

I wait until May or June because I don't have a suitable outhouse and the chicks start indoors in the living room. After a few weeks it gets smelly despite continuous cleaning and I start wanting to keep them outside, which I can't do until they're feathered enough and it's mild (I don't dare risk a power cut in the shed at night).

[Polyanya]

Yeah I think its a little early, having said that I used to try and incubate in Feb but had some issues with power cuts due to gales and ended up running around in the middle of the night trying to find somewhere warm for incubator and subsequent chicks. No fun so I don't bother now until the third week of March, that gives me pullets thatl hatch in April just in time for better weather and then pol that will lay right through the winter.

[DavidandCollette]

As an inexperienced chicken keeper,  Ialways see pictures of lots of chicks hatching at the same time.  I assume therefore that the eggs all go into the incubator at the same time. How do you end up with so many eggs available for incision at the same time?  Sorry for the stupid question

[Victorian Farmer]

You would use 2 incubaters 1 for hatching and 1 for incubating. Keep eggs for a week put 12 extra in a 40 egg incubator. So when you candle the cleares can be got rid of so you finish up whith 40 live eggs. Hatch rate in spring should be 85%

[devonlady]

Slightly off topic, but not much! I bought, for the princely sum of two quid in the sundries sale at Newton Abbot smallholder's market, a natty idea for a brooder. Someone had taken a plastic storage box (the sort of thing you see in pound shops) cut out the top of the lid, leaving the rim and about half an inch and gun-stapled small meshed weld-mesh to it.
Like Eve, I now have to brood my chicks in the living room with the heat lamp hung over the back of a dining chair so this is easy to clean, just take chicks out, leave them in the care of a very maternal whippet, whoosh out with Milton, dry and put back with clean litter.

[Jukes Mum]

Ialways see pictures of lots of chicks hatching at the same time.  I assume therefore that the eggs all go into the incubator at the same time. How do you end up with so many eggs available for incision at the same time?

Usually eggs can be up to around 10 days old before incubation, so if you have 10 hens all laying 1 egg per day, you could reasonably have 100 eggs ready to go in the incubator together.

[Marches Farmer]

If you're near a regular poultry market you can buy eggs to add to your home produced ones.  Always a bit of a gamble but we've got some excellent birds this way.

[Polyanya]

Devonlady - I agree I always start off my chicks inside my house, depending upon how many I incubated, so much easier keeping an eye on them all.