huge chicken shortage about to hatch 400 eggs !

[BeccaOH]

Free, I used the simple Little Giant when I started and got very nice hatches with it. It seems a good, economical way to get started. Then I got a Hovabator, that seems to do better with holding the humidity for waterfowl hatches. Now I have a cabinet incubator and mainly use the 2 foam incubators as hatchers.

Last year QA and I order in chicks for our feed store. We sold sexed pullets for $3 each (no huge profit there) and still we had some folks complain (especially the Amish who want their livestock dirt cheap). TSC was just under us in price, but their chicks were mainly production red hybrids while we did the common pure breeds like NHR, BO, and BR.

I'm not doing it the same this year. This year folks have to pre-order and prepay. I'll just manage the order and delivery day. Hopefully I won't be stuck with too many chicks like last year. Last year we had a few that were hard to get rid of and I was out of space as I had my own hatches going on.

Around here people can drive a little over an hour to Meyer Hatchery for chicks, so they really don't want to pay more than they would up there.

 

[justusnak]

I havent heard of a shortage...yet...in our area...however, we live in a large farming area. I have I think 30 or 40 chicken eggs due the 18th, and I just set 33 duck eggs yesterday. I have the little styrofoam bater....its OK, but not nearly as reliable as my Brower top hatch. I love that thing!! Got it for a steal too, $50.
As soon as the chickens hatch....another 30 or so will go in...chicks go quickly here...I sell them for $2 each...as week olds.

 

[aggieterpkatie]

I have an LG incubator. It's not fabulous, but it works well enough. I added a computer fan (something like $6 or $7 new at Best Buy) and wired it to an old cell phone charger. It really helped!! If you don't have a fan, I'd add one, Free. I found without the fan some of the eggs right near the element just got too hot!

Also, I'd buy a good thermometer b/c the cheapo one they give you just isn't accurate. In fact, I used 2 thermometers...one I bought at Walmart for under $10 that tracks humidity as well, and my husbands very $$$ multimeter that I've stolen for use in the kitchen lol. I figure between the two of them I can get a pretty good guage of the temp.

 

[freemotion]

Very helpful tips. Is it a regular computer fan, or a smaller laptop fan? My dad can do that for me.

I checked a couple of online hatcheries and saw no shortage. A couple of April dates were sold out on some breeds, but that is normal.

My plan is to fill the 'bator (41 eggs) and see how it goes. If I don't sell them, well, I need some for meat, so it is ok and won't be too many. I don't imagine I'll get anything like 41 chicks from the hatch, anyways. And I can only hatch every 3 weeks or so, so I just won't start another batch if I didn't sell the last ones, unless I want more for myself. We'll see....new experiment! I hope to cover the cost of the incubator, at least, then my chicks will be free!

 

[glenolam]

I've had very good hatch rates with my little giant.

I haven't even considered making my own or buying some fancy one.

The only time I ever had an issue was with one batch last year. The eggs weren't mine, but all had viable chicks inside. I think there was an issue with temp/humidity, but I also don't have a fancy thermometer or anything like that.

If all you're doing is hatching a few here and there, these work great. Sure, you could get a dud, but the two I have work great.

I would highly suggest getting a nicer thermometer/humidity checker, though. I still haven't and the one that comes with the bater doesn't check humidity and will most likely get all gooey/crappy with the first hatch.

 

[aggieterpkatie]

Yep, just a regular computer fan.


Hey, we should start a hatch along on here. I know they have them all the time on BYC but they get so many people doing it it's hard to keep track of everyone.