[bevsmith]

Have just bought a second hand novital covatutto 24 bator from a car boot [ yes i know,LOL ] Anyway chap seemed very genuine and said he had good hatch rates,explained what to do,he told me fill up with cold water [ does the water heat up or stay cold ? ] and turn on for 2 days before putting in eggs,it is i believe semi -auto turn,[ so what do i have to do regards turning the eggs?,told to keep water topped up and to switch off the turner 3 days before hatch date,He has said he would find me the manual but not holding my breath,are these instructions correct,also would i best get a thermometer,and if so what temp should be at,he said it already set up for hens eggs, have filled up and turned on and all seems to be working ok.any advice for a 1st timer plz,

[bamford6]

first thing make sure its clean ,,,,,,,,,boil the kettle and put luck warm water in it .get temp up to 37.5 round about . get some eggs from some one thats honest and not e bay make up you're mind whot breed you wont .so iff you wonted light Sussex get 12 from 1 breeder and 12 from another .have an idea haw meney you wont take 2 cock birds from the first and the hens from the other. out off 24 you should get 12 to 15 birds sell or swop the ones that  you dont wont and thats you .next hatch try ducks quail or eney think that takes you're Fancy

[jameslindsay]

That's pretty much about all you have to do. The only thing is if you are in Scotland then it is recommended not to add water to the incubator. I have just yesterday hatched some hen eggs and had no water at all in the incubator. Good luck.

[bevsmith]

HI, thanks for that,so i keep temp around 37.5 and fill up with luke warm water,shall be useing our own eggs,but only ever used broodies before, sounds simple enough even for me,LOL.will any thermometer do,say one from the chemist?i presume i just hang it inside somewhere.?

[shetlandpaul]

mke sure you have the brooding equipment set up. it is easy. but i would think carefully about what you produce. your hens are likely to be 80-100% fertile so you may end up with lots of chicks. then there is the male chicks if you can't kill them what are you going to do with them.

[GOS]

I shall be getting my own incubator soon, so this thread has proved useful to me also.  The one question I have (excuse me if I seem a bit thick) but Bamford 6 suggested two losts of 12 eggs from different breeders, yes I understand that and keeping two cocks from one lot and the hens from the other, but how do you know which came from which set of 12 eggs when they are all in the same incubator?  As I say apologies if I'm stupid

[shetlandpaul]

leg rings. mark the eggs hatch at diffrent times. bamford is right. about the mixing of cocks. it may not be as bad if the breeder has more than one cock running with the hens. you could ask the egg producer to supply marked eggs from diffrent breeding groups.

[bamford6]

when you start to incubate it is so sad when some things can go wrong iv been doing this for a long time ,thunder will do the eggs .tripping the electric when you're out .fertility to much humidity over 50 will ruin the hatch .foltey thermostat and putting the incubater in the wrong place .but worse than that candling and droping the egg .think like this 6 gold lace orpingtons bantam £30 for 6 eggs 6 chocklate orpingtons £40 pound thats only 12 eggs so iff you make a mistake all gone .you will not make the mistake again .iv done it with 100 eggs i naw have a 12 v back up .this yere alone i had 3 incubates with 400 eggs in very cold spell eggs all clea

[shetlandpaul]

you have had a bad time. but look on the bright side it really can't get any worse. at the moment we have 4 polish bantams and six brahmas shareing with  ill 4 week old turkey who has gone off its feet. and a three week ophaned goose in the living room. the smell is bad at times.

[bevsmith]

Thanx appreciate the advice,will only use our own eggs to begin with as u say can turn out an expensive failure,we keep mainly silkies,and english game,so any surplus are usually easy to sell.If and when i get decent results will probably buy some different breeds,only haveing a trial run for now,as really for next spring now as we have finished brooding for this year.

[bamford6]

shetlandpaul things not working at the moment .i had 180 rare breed lambs and only lost 12 not bad out off 200 so that side was ok .the feeds and grain saw dust has gone up .we haven't made a penny on the fowl feed bill is £120 a week  at the moment .had a 22 foot shed by 10 built just for the next hard winter .we will change the breeds this yere sell the silkies blacks whites blues and most off the other breeds keep the better priced birds .wev got 55 pens and 4 birds in each .the first thing 100 black rocks more road island reds Sussex thats whot a lot off people wont .IL have  3 pens off chocklate or pingtons instead off 2 1 more pen off gold lace orpingtons bantams and more quail been sealing them for £5 each redey to lay in 7 weeks more people wont the eggs to eat with salads .so some think positive very late with the hay the grass as only just started to grow .so a big change in the rare breeds ducks all gone and the geese re think on that side latter ,dont think we will brake even till september

[shetlandpaul]

i know what you mean. we had no silage so had to buy in all the feed. i can't imgine that number of chickens in separate pens. were just breaking even buy selling the eggs to two shops. it may help cover some of your feed bills. our glass seems to be glowing ok we have chased the sheep out and hopefully we should get a cut this year. have you thought of turkeys expensive to feed but excellent cost returns. hermit does a lot more geese than we do but if you find a good mrket with the heavy breeds you could mke some cash there. its very hard to make a living on a small holding so even breaking even is pretty good. are you making good use of all that chick poo you should be able to grow some nice veg with it. were experamenting with building coops out of pallets so that should keep costs down.

[bamford6]

we dont bother with the Pooh just put it on the fields .whot i need is a mangier to tell me which way to go i rent the farm 6 or 7 fields have hay 200 rare breed  sheep some pigs did have geese and ducks 250 chickins rare breeds a bout 100 quail mountain blue scale etc .last yere broke even .this winter cost us a lot 2000 dawn need new ideas .eggs not selling chicks naw and then  the same with the quail .iv been at this for 2 yeres 7 days a week used to make £40 fixing 1 computer thort this was a new start .never have eney cash last week 300 pound 60 for 4 bags chick crumbs 2 saw dust i grain paid 1 bill thats it sell some eggs for sunday lunch just mad living like this

[cairnhill]

Hi Gary

was wondering what breeds of sheep you have?

regards
Anna

[bamford6]

Brecknock Hill Cheviot bad thing bought a fantastic ram in september from buthwells cost me £1000 pound it was worth more very good pedigree found it dead last month wev had lots off twins triplets and strong lambs . i was planning to up the flock  to 250 from 200 but i found it hard with no real experience off sheep farming .i think iff you could have a few different breeds would be good .portland dartmore etc