[Viv]

I have an incubator coming, I've read up a bit about what to do, now I would like to have your hints and tips on how to be successful at this? I will of course keep you all informed of my progress.

[Wildeone]

Good luck with it. A few have had a try on here and it seems its not as easy as it looks! How many eggs are you going to do?

[Viv]

I thought I'd start just with half a dozen from my ladies, I have a new Rooster a White star we have named Thomas, he's great and quite a gentleman with the ladies. I hope that he is fertile. I do not want to go mad with lots of eggs in the 'bator and then have problems. My ladies are ex batts and two rescued white leghorns

[naturesparadise]

ill be getting one in 2 weeks or so getting the R-COM 3  i have sorted 3 eggs

of the breed light sussex as soon as i have the inncy ill order them

so i wish you luck there are no real tricks to it really a lot of it is luck

[Viv]

I am really looking forward to starting, quite excited at this new venture. I love my girls to bits and hope they will produce for me. I have gone down the incubator route as non of my ladies appear to have any inclanation to sit on eggs  :roll:

[noshed]

I was wondering about photos...

[Foxy]

Hi Viv, sounds really exciting -I intend to use broodys again this year One thing i would ask is what breed is your cockerel? Are you going to keep the chicks yourself? I am not sure how fertile your old girls will be if they are old bats. Just a thought as it might be worth obtaining fertile hatching eggs from a breeder who has fit and young birds specifically for breeding. I will have some hatching eggs soon!  

[babe]

incubators make you cry  :cry:

[Foxy]

oh babe dont give up! why dont you try a broodie? silkies or silkie crosses are fantastic! Pekins are good broodies  too.

[babe]

oh babe dont give up! why dont you try a broodie? silkies or silkie crosses are fantastic! Pekins are good broodies  too.

i had a silkie, fox ate her :roll:

apparently im not suited to incubators, im impatient and cant keep out.

dad's most used words when he was around in the past few weeks were

step away from the incubator

[skyblue]

Hi

When i first used an incubator i washed the eggs in brinsea incubator cleaner as the instructions told me and left them to it. I didn't get  a very good hatch rate at all, next time just made sure the incubator was clean, put the egss in  and left them to it, it worked a treat, don't get to hung up on having the perfect humidity either i have found that there is usually a high enough level naturally apart from in the midlle of summer. Two main tips

1. GET EGGS FROM WELL LOOKED AFTER QUALITY CHICKENS
2. ONCE THEIR IN THE INCUBATOR, LEAVE THEM ALONE

[babe]

2. ONCE THEIR IN THE INCUBATOR, LEAVE THEM ALONE

this is the bit i cant do!!!!!

at least im honest...hopeless but honest

[Wildeone]

When i was a primary school we hatched ducklings as an experiment and out of 12 eggs only 1 hatched but somebody turned the switch off by accident half way through  

I forged my mums signature to say that i could look after it during the Easter holidays and on the last day of term my mum came home at 6pm to find me teaching daffy to swim in the bath!!!!  She was horrified to say the least but it was too late by then to argue!      

We i lived in a two bed flat with no garden at the time! :shock:   But he was lovely and we all were upset when we had to take him to a local farm after Easter

[Viv]

Hi Foxy my cockerel is a White Star, which I believe is similar to a white leghorn. I have to set up my shed clear out all my paperwork and install my incubator etc. What are your eggs that you will be selling? I am intending on having Brahmas. I also have a young trio of Yokahamas ( excuse the spelling) and hope to have some young from these. I shall work towards getting a couple of silkies to brood normaly as well. I have approximately 1acre that they have free range on. Fox is a problem along with rats which I know I have to deal with, but, as we live in the countryside by a river next to farmland then I have been told that rats are an inevitable happening especially as their food source has depleted with the winter.

[skyblue]

Hi

Ducks are much harder to hatch using a incubator tham chickens, you need to allow them a cool down period each day to simulate the effect of the duck getting off the nest .