CajuninKy
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Gift from my DHMy DH is very thoughtful and I love him to bits. He bought me an incubator! I have been wanting one for some time. He got it at TSC and I am so happy to have it. It doesn't have a turner or a fan but you can buy them seperately to add to it. The turner costs as much as the bator. I can turn the eggs myself since I won't be hatching out tons of chicks. Just the eggs from my 2 game hens. I'm also going to hatch a few bantams for DGS to piddle around with. He can sell them at the local flea market. As for the fan, it's not a have to have but it's better to have one to keep the fresh air circulating. But I have that covered. A week ago I rescued a food dehydrator somebody had put out at the dump. I took it apart and had my electrician friend look at it for me. The heating element was shot but the fan worked fine so I kept it thinking I would try to make a bator and would need it. The bator DH bought for me has some holes in the bottom for air circulation so I will set the bator up on some "legs" and put the fan underneath it to keep fresh air circulating around the holes. I am collecting my eggs for the bator's maiden hatch. They are under my bed.
Here is the fan I salvaged.
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God's Warrior
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How cool! This is one thread I will be following faithfully.
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CajuninKy
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The almanac says today, tomorrow and Friday are best days to set eggs. I don't have enough from my own chickens yet so I will have to try and get a dozen from a friend tomorrow to add to mine. Then I'll be in business.
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Mary
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Oh what fun you are going to have! Be sure to show us pictures when you get it set up with the eggs in it, and especially when they hatch! Pray over them!! I've heard that it helps to have a little pencil mark on one side so you can tell if you turned them all. I'm sure that you frequent the pountry forum over on DG where there are a lot of people hatching eggs in incubators.
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CajuninKy
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The poultry forum is where I got the itch for the incubator. I am going to order some Black Sexlink pullets from Eagle Nest Poultry for my egg needs but I needed the incubator to hatch my game eggs. We'll also hatch bantam eggs and sell the chicks at the flea market. I am very eggcited (couldn't resist) about this adventure!
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CajuninKy
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We are on our way! I got a dozen big, brown eggs from my friend yesterday, plugged my incubator in and fiddled with it for a couple hours until I got the temp regulated. I put 22 eggs in it late last night. I have turned them 3 times today and I added another bantam egg today. I have an "X" on one side of the egg and an "O" on the other side. That way I know at a glance if the eggs have all been turned. Chicken eggs take 21 days to hatch so April 3rd and 4th is our target date. I know it might take some a few days longer. I will candle them in 10 days or so and look for any progress.
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CajuninKy
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One of my Bantam eggs cracked in the bator. I think it may have had a hairline crack since the beginning and just showed up. The others are fine as far as I can tell. Just 5 more days and they should begin to hatch. I have to stop turning them Wednesday. I sure hope they all hatch. I'll keep you posted. I have to get a brooder box fixed up for the chicks. I am going to used one of the big gray totes and a clamp-on light. I have both of them already.
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Mary
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Did you candle them? This sounds like a really fun project. You should have peepers by the weekend. I'll be looking for pictures.
My rhubarb is coming up. Is yours doing anything?
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CajuninKy
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Yes, my rhubarb is up and going strong. It is about 8" high now. Everytime I look at it I think of you. Not that I think you look like rhubarb. LOL
I tried to candle an egg but my flashlight was not bright enough. This late in the game all I'd be likely to see is a black blob. I have to quit turning them Wednesday. I don't know why but it says to quit turning them 3 days before they are suposed to hatch. Friday will be 21 days. I have to get my brooder box ready. I will be using a big plastic gray tote with a clamp-on light. I have everything. I just have to get it ready. I also need to buy a couple of newspapers and get my water and feed jars ready. I think the feed jar is here but the water bottle is at the barn where I had the other chicks and hen in the dog crate. They are doing good. It looks like the white plymoth rock is a roo. I think I can see the beginnings of wattles. I don't see any on the dominique so I am hoping it is a pullet.
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CajuninKy
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We are hatching! The eggs started hatching last night and as of now 9 of them have hatched. Seven are in the brooder and 2 are still in the bator. I will leave them there all night and move them in the morning. Nothing is happening with the other eggs. None of the bantam eggs have hatched. I will be leaving them up to another week just to give them every chance. I aslo went to the market today and bought 5 mixed big stock chicks that are only a few days old. I put them in with the others and they are doing well. They were a good deal at $1.50.
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God's Warrior
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How precious! It has been years since i have been around little chicks. My parents and my grandmother used to raise them when I was growing up and they are darling.
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CajuninKy
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That incubator is going to be the gift that keeps on giving! LOL
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God's Warrior
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I hope you will continue posting pictures of them. I am trying to remember .... but don't you need to put some kind of medication in their water? It seems that I remember that for some reason.
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CajuninKy
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Not that I know of. Antibiotics go in the water but only if they are sick.
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God's Warrior
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I can just remember little dead ones every day. Maybe that was just because there were always so many and it was easy for infections to start that way. I remember Daddy putting something in their water jars. Way back then, he bought them at the local feed store every year..He was the agriculture teacher at the local high school. We always had the PERFECT farm in those days. The ag kids would come to our farm and innoculate the chickens and do all kinds of other stuff. We had a big chicken house and Daddy even had music playing in there I remember. He left the lights on all the time because he said they ate better that way. We raised white leghorn chickens. My granny, on the other hand, had her own little farm and she let the hens set the eggs. Those were the days that everyone had long wooden boxes on legs for them with wire runs for the outside part of the box and a kerosene lamp under the closed in part of the box to keep the chicks warm. My grandmother didn't have electricity so that was how those folks did it when they bought chicks in town. Daddy had an electric warming light under his. My word! I hadn't thought of all of that stuff for years.
We also had a working dairy on our farm and I remember Daddy playing music for the cows in the milking barn too. Maybe he just liked music, huh? I wonder if he played country music for the country cows and chickens. LOL I don't remember. 
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Mary
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How cute! Peep, peep, peep! The black ones with white spots on their heads might be barred rocks. Which ones are your hatchlings?
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CajuninKy
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Mine are the smaller yellow ones and the one small very dark brown one. It came from a blue egg and is an aracauna though I think it is actually an easter egger. The 9th chick to hatch had a crippled foot from being too long in hatching. I kept it seperated from the others in an ice cream bucket in the brooder and it is fine this morning. I am glad I did not have to cull it. None of the other eggs have hatched. I don't hold out hope for them but I am giving them the rest of the week. Then I will toss them.
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CajuninKy
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The bator is going again. This time it contains 12 golden comet mixed eggs, 1 unknown big stock egg, 5 bantam eggs and 7 game hen eggs. I set it yesterday so we have a long way to go. The chicks in the brooder are growing quickly and it looks like quite a few of them are roos. We will eat them so I need some more pullets. We will sell the game and bantam chicks.
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God's Warrior
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AW! How precious! Thanks for the picture. Ir gave me the warm fuzzies just looking at it.
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CajuninKy
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The second hatch is now history. I have 10 chicks and 2 may have to be culled. They are both bantams and are having problems. I am giving them every chance. We lost power a few times during the 21 day incubation process and that may have contributed to the low hatch rate. I may set some more eggs Thursday or Friday. Those are the last good days this month according to the almanac.
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God's Warrior
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Maybe you will just have to sit on them yourself if that happens again.  I seem to remember reading somewhere sometime in my life about someone doing something like carrying them around next to their body when the necessary warmth was off for a short time. I guess that would work if you bubble packed them. It could get a tad messy if someone bumped you however.
What breed are the ones with the different colors? They are all so neat!
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CajuninKy
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They are an unidentified mixture. LOL Some of the eggs were given to me. The little striped chick is a game chick. I have McCrea Roundhead hens crossed with a Hatch Roo. I also have a BB red bantam roo, some white bantam hens and a Blue Spanish Muff / white bantam cross roo.
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God's Warrior
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Lordie, my knowledge of chicken breeds is quite lacking and I have never even heard of most of those. I think I will spend some time researching them and their pictures. I have had several leghorns and the darling little fluffy white ones with fluffy topnots, blue eyes and feathers above their feet but that is all. I loved those dear little birds. They just sang and sang all the time. When you would come up to them they would just sit down and you could pick them up. That was a long time ago when my kids were still at home.
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