Incubating Eggs

[iamtheparty]

Has anyone ever tried this? I know it's a bit of a weird question but I found this article:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... eggs-.html

And the more I read around, the more common it appears to be. I'm thinking about incubating chicken, rather than duck eggs because I don't have any water for them to live on. My mum has talked about wanting chickens for years.

So, if anyone has done this, do you have any advice? I'm really really excited!!

[bingeandpurge]

Make sure you're prepared to handle full-grown chickens. They're adorable as babies yes, but then they grow up. If you're not positive that you can provide them with adequate living situations, DON'T DO IT. Thousands of chickens and ducks are brought to animal shelters every year because people only want them as cute babies, then toss them aside as adults.

Chickens need plenty of room to roam and forage for tiny insects and tender new plant growth. Be aware that your entire yard will be covered in poop in a matter of days, and accept that you can never go barefoot in your yard ever again. If you have a lot of room you can build a coop with a fenced bit, but just make sure it's big enough for them. Also be sure your neighbors are okay with a rooster doing his rooster thing ALL DAMN DAY (no, not just in the morning) as if you're hatching them from eggs you can't exactly pick to have only hens.

On the other hand, chickens are wonderful! I spent my childhood running around after flocks of them, teaching them little tricks, and dragging them around on "leashes." Nothing beats the taste of an omelet made from eggs you gathered yourself from your own flock, fresh eggs have a taste entirely different than store-bought. Same goes for the meat, but if you plan to eat them don't give them names! They're also fantastic for pest-control, keep a flock of poultry around and your vegetable garden will be free of bugs and slugs.


In conclusions, chickens aren't all fun and games but they can be worth the work!

[iamtheparty]

I'm totally prepared to have adult chickens The part I'm most looking forward to is collecting eggs! We've got a pretty big garden. One of my concerns was our cat. Can a cat take out a full grown chicken? Would it try? We also have a dog but I really don't think she'd take any interest in them. There are some foxes around here but they never come in our garden because of the dog.

[[Tank]]

My great grandpas dog used to kill his chickens, but then again it was quite an aggressive dog, if your dog gets on with your cat then you'll probably be ok.

[bingeandpurge]

Depending on the animals, I'd actually put my money on a full-grown rooster against most cats.
We generally kept the chicks away from the cats otherwise they'd probably have taken a try or two when they were helpless babies, but by the time the chicks were old enough to be on their own out in the coop or the yard the cats didn't bother with them. And I'd say if your dog isn't already predisposed to chasing and hurting things, i.e. attacks the neighborhood cats or anything, you should be fine. Our dogs did chase and scatter the chickens a few times, but that was all in fun and high-spirits. They never really registered the chickens as prey as they'd been used to the chicken scent in the house as we raised them under heat lamps in the basement.

I have no knowledge of foxes, here the problem for us is coyotes. The only times we lost birds to coyotes was when the bird didn't make it into the coop at night. When the sun sets chickens will instinctively roost together somewhere safe. So if you have a nice coop for them to go to, with perches a few feet off the ground and all their food and water there, they'll go settle down for the night and you can just pop over and close the door, and chickens are safe for the night!

There are a lot of really easy simple instructions online for making coops. They don't have to be too fancy, just have protection from the elements and places for them to roost and nest. You can even make lightweight ones that you can move about the yard in order to fertilize certain areas.

[iamtheparty]

My dad built our rabbit hutches and aviaries and such when I was a kid so that wouldn't be a problem at all. I'm really excited about it now

My dog isn't aggressive but she's a border collie so she may try to herd them

[Raevyn]

My dad has his own incubator - we have around 50 chickens now, and we give away/sell around 10-20 a month. We have rare breeds, silkies, layers...all different kinds. When I was younger we also bred mallard ducks.

Chickens make great pets, and breeding chicks is a great thing to do, especially for young kids, but you've got to be prepared to lose them. Birds are notorious as being hard to rear and can die from any number of things, including failure to thrive. We'll lose 2-3 chicks per clutch of 10, and it has nothing to do with what we're doing - my mum is a vet nurse and we have the proper facilities, medications and foods, it's just the way things are. All the breeders we deal with and are friendly with have the same percentage mortality rates. Personally, I won't name a chick until it is at least 6 months old, and even then I am reluctant. We've had birds running around, eating and drinking one day and dead the next, not a mark on them.

You need to have a place for them to go once they hatch with adequate heating, bedding, food and water. You need to teach them to eat and drink, they don't know how to do it on their own. You need one heat lamp per, i think, 10 chicks. They need to stay in the incubator, untouched, for at least 24 hours after hatching to properly aclimatise and digest the yolk they've just eaten.
I'm not even going to mention the upkeep of the incubator itself, because you probably already know all that.

Be prepared to have to put down the ones that have genetic defects that will inhibit their life - I'm not talking about ones that have a dicky wing or if their feet don't uncurl, I mean the ones that clearly will not survive. Usually we will drown them when it comes to that - it's very quick and not violent - and usually both my parents and I are in tears the entire time. It's not a pleasant thing to do and certainly not something a family of animal lovers relishes. It's only happened twice so far thankfully.

One degree difference in temperature in your incubator and you'll hatch mostly boys or mostly girls, dependant on that temperature. If you intend to keep the chickens, you need to keep the roosters seperate ie. two different pens with their own flock of girls, they're very jealous creatures, otherwise sell all but one male if you want to continue breeding. And like has been mentioned, I'd also put my rooster over my cat. Hell he's even got my 11 year old staffie fooled, she wanders around amongst all of them and doesn't even bat an eyelash. Neither do they anymore. Check with local council though - I know here it's actually illegal to have roosters in the suburbs because of the noise they make (luckily for us, our neighbors have done some not so legal things before we got roosters, so they keep their mouths shut)

I'm not meaning to put you off - I think chickens are a great pet to have, they're reasonably low maintenance and you get a return with their eggs. My chooks each have their own individual personality and their all unique in their own way. There are only a few that aren't tame, most of them will sit in your lap, let you pat them and I even have 2 that live up at the house and follow us around like little puppies and come when they're called. I'm only saying these things so that you can fully understand that other side of hatching eggs and be able to make a fully informed decision. If you can handle the not so nice side (when you need to! It's only not so nice maybe 3% of the time), I say go for it! Sign up to a local beginners chook forum and get to know your local breeders - it's a godsend when your starting out to have someone you can call in a panic and say "OMG this is happening and I don't know what to do!!" Most of the time they'll just laugh at you and tell you it's all ok.

Good luck!

[MissAnthropik]

We get eggs every year in an incubator for school (I'm a teacher). We keep them for 2 weeks, then they go to local farm, I would love to keep them but we have loads of foxes round here, which i also love, and it would take more effort than I have to fox proof a part of my garden.

Things to be aware of - you will probably get more cocks than hens, which is fine if you are happy to have them (and are allowed them where you live - some councils don't allow them in residential areas because of the noise), or know somewhere that will take them. Most places don't want them though, they want lots of hens and just one cock. Not much need for cocks farming wise.

[iamtheparty]

I read somewhere that the temperature the eggs are incubated at makes a difference in the hen/cock ratio, but I have no idea if that's true or just a wives tale.

[MissAnthropik]

i don't know... optimum temperature is body temperature, but maybe fractions of degrees could affect it without affecting whether they live or not