new babies

[glenniedragon]

I am very excited, I'm off to pick up 6 fresh hatching eggs this weekend. I've never hatched any in an incubator before but I've borrowed one from a friend and she's going to 'supervise' me doing it...I am really egg-cited I think the boys will love to see the fluffy bundles that (hopefully) will emerge. What are your thoughts on vaccinations? my girls came from a trditional breeds centre who vaccinate routinely, if they are vaccinated should I 'do' the ones that I want to run with them? would the others be OK without?


kind thoughts
Deb

[Shirley]

Oooh the patter of little chick feet !!

Best of luck with your incubating... we didn't do too well with chicks to be honest, only one hatched out of about 24 and that chick died before 24 hours was up - BUT we were using an older incubator that didn't monitor humidity etc... AND we bought our eggs from auction which isn't always a good idea.

That said, we did have much more success with the ducklings - we bought some of the eggs from ebay (but from a reputable seller) and had probably about 90% hatch rate... but we then had a different incubator that monitored everything. It was great fun to have the kids watching the hatch, not to mention the candling at the various stages where you could see the chick developing inside the egg.

Not sure yet what we'll be doing this year, but we have light sussex and buff sussex - both kept in separate bits of the garden with their own cockerel to service them. The buffs are too young for chicks this year but the light sussex should HOPEFULLY produce some fertile and hopefully one will turn broody and incubate as nature intended.

We didn't bother with vaccinations on the advice of several posters on the practical poultry board.

[glenniedragon]

These eggs came from Ebay too, but I like to narrow the search down to reasonably local so I can pick up, rather than trust to luck to the Post. Me and my poultry friend (my 'supervisor' for hatching) have had precisly(?) the reverse sucess, with duckings not being that sucessful, chickens being better and quails being over 95% hatch rate-couldn't believe how well we did with those last year. Pickled quail eggs go for a bundle down here..mmm tasty....apparently quails left to their own devices don't go broody which wouldn't do much for the survival of the species....I'm now trying not to think about little ducklings hopping around...no be strong...later in the year...I'll just have a look on Ebay, just a look, I don't have to buy.....

kind thoughts
Deb

[Shirley]

I was just looking through old pics and videos and trying to downsize my collection after I found I have a whopping 10.6 GB photo album on my computer - no wonder the poor thing is slow!!!!!

Had a nice time looking through and finding pics of our ducks, geese, chooks and sheep from our last place in Herefordshire. I think we will end up having these again one day.

The ducks in particular - such fun!!!!

Keep meaning to say - I love your pic!! Must get round to getting one myself.

[glenniedragon]

The piccie is of me and OH, Camilla and Flo are only about 11 weeks old there...ahhhh....

PS
Resisted the Ebay urge

Kind thoughts
Deb

[Jessica]

Hi once your humidity is about 50 and temperture is about 37/38 c and you keep water in the bowl in the incubator they such be ok o yes and they are fertile, i incubate all my chicks, out of about 12 i would get 9/10
and thats not to bad i have 9 5 week olds here in spare bed room with my computer so i get to spend some time with them, they are looking at me now while i type here to you.

Good Luck jessie.

[glenniedragon]

I've checked all the settings and the temp stays around 38, which looking at another thread is as hot as Nev is down in Aus...I wonder what the humidity is down there and how sucessful incubating is down there, maybe you have to stop eggs over heating? I'll be happy as long as I get a cockeral out of this lot (I know not the normal way round) so next year I can hatch some of our own progeny- you watch Murphy's law says they'll all be hens! oh well fingers crossed!

Kind thoughts
Deb