Life on a Homestead

[Jackalope]

    I've written on a number of occasions about death on a homestead.  This posting is about life and death, too.

   The cost of chicks at the local farm suppliers has risen significantly over the past decade, so I decided to try incubating my hen's eggs to see if I can save some money and learn more about the hatching process.  I acquired an incubator that not only keeps the eggs at the correct temperature, but also automatically turns the eggs.  The incubator runs off common 110 ac, and it'll also run on 12 volts dc, so it can be used with my solar photovoltaic system, in a pinch.

    So, about little three weeks ago, 10 eggs were placed in the incubator.  After 21 days, I had one little guy burst through his shell and started strutting around.  I patiently waited for additional eggs to hatch.  After four extra days, the incubator was turned off and the remaining eggs were collected for a post-mortem.

     I cracked open each egg to see what happened.  Four of the eggs were not fertilized.  Two of the eggs had some early development.  Three of the eggs looked to be close to full term.  It looks like my single rooster isn't capable of fully fertilizing 18 or so hens, so another rooster may be needed.  I'm not sure what happened with eggs that were nearly full term.

     The single chick seems to be healthy.  Chickens are flock animals, and they can actually die of loneliness.  In an effort to keep the little guy semi-happy, I've placed a mirror in his enclosure.  He spends about 90% of his or her time in front of the mirror.  I've also been playing youtube audio of chicks, and he seems to like it.  I may let him cozy up to one of our guard dogs, once it gets a little bigger.  So far, his development is comparable to all the other batches of chicks that I've had over the decades.

     I'm going to start another batch of eggs this weekend.  Hopefully, this batch will be more successful. 

[Felix]

Here was my routine for maintaining egg production/ age classes without buying anything OR using an incubator...
Kept a rooster (ate the young ones that revealed their masculine pronouns) and let him have his way with the girls.  (until such time as he got old and then his destiny in the stew pot left a vacancy for the next likely looking lad)   Colleen used to love rushing home from work to set out on the patio and watch him "get rowdy" on a hen.    "That's rape!   Did you see that?!?!?"
Anyhoo... I kept simple cardboard boxes up in the horse hay stacks and that's where everybody would go for the night (good, high fencing around the property).    And the hens would lay there.   I would NEVER take all of the eggs out and if I ever found a wildcat nest somewhere else, I'd put those eggs in a box.   Each egg would get an "x" penciled on the ends and after a a few had accumulated and a hen made that her spot, I would then,each morning, go out and gently lift them up one at a time, taking any unmarked eggs out.    They took care of incubation and caring for the little ones.    All I had to do was provide clean water and toss out some scratch, leaving them to "free range" otherwise.   Had one dog that was hard to teach they were "family" and to leave then alone but we got there.

[Jackalope]

     My Rhode Island Reds aren't too broody, that's why I decided to try an incubator.  I did the "x" trick to make sure the automatic turner was actually functioning. 

     I also have a female goose that is laying unfertilized egg each spring.  Tonight, I went down to close up the electric fence which circles the chicken pen, and the goose wasn't there.  So, I had to go look for where she was nesting.  Found her and brought her back to the chicken pen for the night.  We have a couple of coyote groups that have been howling nearby, so I've been extra careful. The goose lost her mate some years ago to a coyote.  Raising poultry can be a challenge, because everything likes to eat poultry.

[Felix]

Yep, good fences make good neighbors - especially with respect to foxes and coyotes (raccoons aren't exactly saints either)
My flock was mixed... had some Rhode Island Reds, some Barred Rocks and a few whit and black ones, can't remember their names.     We hire and retained birds strictly on meritocracy, not feather coloring.    :-)
Was looking wistfully at some charming little Barred Rock chicks at the feed store last week - the wife sez NO CHICKENS!     (am currently weighing the relative pluses and minuses of her versus chickens)((she also sez NO DOG BREEDING while she's around _and_ she was fearful that I might have thrown in with the "Proud Boys"))      Sheesh   :-(

[JohnyMac]

The Proud Boys Felix  You rebel you...LOL...

I am going to ask this question jackalope...Why don't you candle the eggs you put in the incubator?

My neighbor, like you, started to incubate the eggs by cupping a small flashlight in the pam of her hand and laying the egg on her palm over the egg. She would do this after about a week and the eggs she did not see a fetus in the would discard and then put some more eggs into the incubator. Similarly, she would pensile the dates on the eggs when they went into the incubator. Typically, she would have  the number of chicks desired over a 14-day period.

She also positioned the incubator right next to the holding box for freshly hatched chicks. The freshly hatched chicks, she claims, migrated to the sound of the hatched chicks.

By the way, great idea on the mirror. 

[Jackalope]

    The eggs weren't candled because I didn't want to disturb their development by removing them from incubator and exposing them to cooler temperatures.  I'm paying closer attention to the incubator temperature and humidity this time.
   
    Meantime, the lone chick is still healthy, and already has feathers growing on its wings.

[JohnyMac]