Chicks are hatching :)

[Myhouseisazoo2]

I may have to look into one... I tried letting my eldest hen (a lovely Americana wheaten) brood over her eggs earlier this year. She nested on three originally and we discovered that our rooster (at the time) had snatched one out, we removed him and she nested for a few weeks more one egg exploded and the other one had nothing in it :'( she got depressed for a while after that so while I'd like to let her brood again I don't want more exploded eggs and depressed chickens.

 

[sumi]

@Myhouseisazoo2 I have a Brinsea Eco 20 and I'd recommend them to anyone. They are very user-friendly and I've had wonderful hatches in mine, both chicks and ducklings. They are pricey, but well worth the $$.

 

[Denim Deb]

If I was doing bigger batches of chicks, that's what I would get as well.

 

[Myhouseisazoo2]

If I don't plan on doing large batch's would it be okay for me to do smaller ones? Say I get a 20 count machine but only put 5-15 in it will it still work okay or will it not be as effective?

 

[Hinotori]

You can put smaller amounts in the 20.

I have the humidity pump for mine. That thing works great.

 

[Myhouseisazoo2]

I am definitely gonna take a look into this, I want to raise both for meat and for eggs so it I think it would be beneficial for me to get one. Plus I can be involved in the process from day 1 and not worry about trying to schedule time to buy them from someone else

 

[sumi]

@Myhouseisazoo2 I have to warn you... hatching is addictive!! Once you've hatched a batch of chicks and watched those little things pop out of the shells, you'll want to do it again and again

 

[Hinotori]

I also use silkiebators.

No worrying about temp or humidity. Turns the eggs and keeps the chicks warm after they hatch.

Only problem is the eggs hatch on their schedule, not mine. It looks like they might be taking a break for a while. My moving them all to another pen probably helped with that.

 

[sumi]

She still hasn't weaned them. This hen just loves being a mom.

 

[Denim Deb]

I have one batch that are now 5 weeks old, so they're still w/mom. And, the ones I had B4 then were w/mom until they were about 10 weeks old, if not older!