Updated... 4/12 The above pics were of the inside of my new freebee score.... a cabinet style incubator with about a 180 egg capacity, turner, hatching tray etc.... FREE! I am delerious... Easter Sunday I had posted pics of the hatching chicks to facebook and a little while later my cellphone rings... My old buddy Chris from the high school era had seen the pics.... He asks me " can you use another incubator? " Heck YEAH! I figured it was a styrophome one like I already have... nope he says.. you need your truck! He didnt know if it worked or anything but told me he figured if it didnt I was handy enough to get it going... Plugged it in the next day and voila it worked.... now the reason for the pictures above? I had no clue how to adjust the temps and once it fired up it shot up to 117°... I was linking those pics to the Backyard Chickens Forum asking for input. With their help It is now adjusted up to temp and FULL of eggs...... I transfered my turkey and duck eggs due to hatch 4/18 into it so the styrophome incubator could be locked down (out of hte turner and no more opening the incubator until hatch to preserve the humidity.) for the chicks and single duck egg about to hatch. Once this batch is complete and the other styro incubator hatch is complete I am going to start working on a schedule to hatch on so I dont have two different hatch dates in the same incubator to give me fits. There are about 25 eggs currently in hatch mode, 3 chicks out this morning, 5 eggs pipped, the duck egg was pipped and rocking(hurry up little ducky!) . The East sunday hatch was 8 babies of 13 eggs to start - 3 duds, 1 stopped developing early and 1 failed to hatch, when cracked open it looked like that one expired about 2 days before hatch. Not counting what is currently hatching here is the chicken count on our farm:
Americaunas 2 hens 1 roo
Buff Orphingtons 2 hens 2 roos
White leghorn -2 hens
Black unknown - 1 hen
Red unknown -1 hen
Frizzle cochin - 1 hen
Cochin- 1 hen
White Silkies - 1 hen 1 roo
Mutt roos - 2
Chicks:
Buff Silkies (8 )
AmericaunaXBuff (3)
White leghornXBuff (3?)
BUFF(2)
Cochin X Silkie(1)
Cochin(2)
Gold laced Wyndottes (6 of unknown sex)
4- Freebie Meeties off craigslist ("the mutants")
Then
1 pair of Narraganset turkeys
3 ducks(2 drakes 1 hen)
It sure is a full house around here. I got the Americaunas seperated and have the White leghorns in with them for crosses. The silkies and cochins are seperated together, This week we are putting wire on tops of the last run to seperate the buffs. Its been a busy spring so far.
Whew....
