EddieWalker
Epic Contributor
Five years ago my wife was in the hospital for 30 days while fighting colon cancer. During that time I didn't do a good job of collecting eggs from our chickens, and they hens hatches 112 eggs. This turned out to be a good thing because it gave my wife the motivation to be active and take care of the baby chicks. Every year in the Spring, we have tried to do this again without very much success. It seems to get worse every year. This year, my wife bought a 30 egg incubator from Amazon for $150
The incubator was very easy to use. Just add water, find some eggs, and let it do it's thing for 18 days, then take out the racks and increase the water and temperature for another couple of days. The eggs started hatching within hours, and where pretty much done in two days.
We leave them in there until they are dry and fluffy. Usually it's about 6 to 8 hours, or over night. Then they go into a big blue plastic tub from Walmart. We've tried a few other things, but the plastic tub works the best.
We keep them in the tub for about 2 weeks. They grow incredibly fast and need to be fed twice a day. Next we split them up and put them into small pens. They remain in there until they grow their feathers out. This takes a couple of weeks. The temps are good enough that they don't need heat lamps right now, but we did have the lamps on last month, in March for those chicks.
Once they get their feathers in and we're comfortable with them being able to deal with the cooler temps in the mornings, we move them out to the coop, and put them into big dog kennels. We mounted the kennels to the wall of the coop to stop snakes from killing them. It also makes taking care of them a lot easier!!!! This is when the other chickens get to know them, and they become part of the flock. We've been told that if you just add new birds to a coop, that they will be picked on and attacked. We've never had that happen, but we've always taken the time to let everyone get to know each other.
After a couple of weeks in the dog kennels, we open the door for them to leave when they want to. We have ramps for each kennel that they can walk up and down to make it easier for them to figure it all out. Some will leave right away, others will take several days to leave for the first time. Then they will go back to the kennel to sleep, and eventually, they will all leave the kennels and join the flock. This can take a full week to happen. We're in no rush, and we like that there isn't any stress on any of them this way.
We have a huge feeder that holds well over 200 pounds of feed that allows them to eat whenever they want. They free range, so they also eat whatever they find out in the pasture, and around the pond. I top off the feeder once a week, and then they make a big mess of it, then they clean up the mess. It's kind of a chicken thing!!!
And then we collect the eggs. We don't wash them until we sell them. We never wash the ones we eat or feed to our dogs. Our six dogs get an egg with their breakfast and another egg with their dinner. Sometimes my wife cooks scrambled eggs for the dogs too!!!! They like them raw, but they prefer them hard boiled. Either way, they are getting plenty of protein from the eggs.
The incubator was very easy to use. Just add water, find some eggs, and let it do it's thing for 18 days, then take out the racks and increase the water and temperature for another couple of days. The eggs started hatching within hours, and where pretty much done in two days.
We leave them in there until they are dry and fluffy. Usually it's about 6 to 8 hours, or over night. Then they go into a big blue plastic tub from Walmart. We've tried a few other things, but the plastic tub works the best.
We keep them in the tub for about 2 weeks. They grow incredibly fast and need to be fed twice a day. Next we split them up and put them into small pens. They remain in there until they grow their feathers out. This takes a couple of weeks. The temps are good enough that they don't need heat lamps right now, but we did have the lamps on last month, in March for those chicks.
Once they get their feathers in and we're comfortable with them being able to deal with the cooler temps in the mornings, we move them out to the coop, and put them into big dog kennels. We mounted the kennels to the wall of the coop to stop snakes from killing them. It also makes taking care of them a lot easier!!!! This is when the other chickens get to know them, and they become part of the flock. We've been told that if you just add new birds to a coop, that they will be picked on and attacked. We've never had that happen, but we've always taken the time to let everyone get to know each other.
After a couple of weeks in the dog kennels, we open the door for them to leave when they want to. We have ramps for each kennel that they can walk up and down to make it easier for them to figure it all out. Some will leave right away, others will take several days to leave for the first time. Then they will go back to the kennel to sleep, and eventually, they will all leave the kennels and join the flock. This can take a full week to happen. We're in no rush, and we like that there isn't any stress on any of them this way.
We have a huge feeder that holds well over 200 pounds of feed that allows them to eat whenever they want. They free range, so they also eat whatever they find out in the pasture, and around the pond. I top off the feeder once a week, and then they make a big mess of it, then they clean up the mess. It's kind of a chicken thing!!!
And then we collect the eggs. We don't wash them until we sell them. We never wash the ones we eat or feed to our dogs. Our six dogs get an egg with their breakfast and another egg with their dinner. Sometimes my wife cooks scrambled eggs for the dogs too!!!! They like them raw, but they prefer them hard boiled. Either way, they are getting plenty of protein from the eggs.
