Over the past month or so, we have been hard at work planning our next adventure. We have been working with our Coorporative Extension Office as well as neighboring farms and chicken owners and planning like mad. We are incredibly blessed to have such a wonderful community of farmers and chicken owners that are willing to jump in and help out us newbies. I am so grateful for them!
Okay, let me tell you what we've had going on.
I had a friend offer me some fertilized chicken eggs to hatch out. She was going to be getting rid of her rooster and she wanted to offer eggs to me while they were still fertile. Her rooster left a week or two ago, so the eggs should still be fertile. Then we were able, through my friend, to get some other eggs as well. All of these eggs should hatch out colored egg layers. *Should*. And we are so hoping that they do!!
So, I went to our local Coorporative Extension Office and borrowed an incubator. I excitedly took it home and worked to get it all set up, running, and to get myself comfortable with how the crazy gadget worked well before acquiring our eggs.
We had some issues with the first incubator. Whether it was the incubator itself or the hygrometer that came with it, I don't know, but I couldn't get the humidity up to an acceptable point. No matter how hard I tried, it wouldn't go past 35%RH. So I took it back and swapped it for another one. This one has worked perfectly.
I ordered a new digital thermometer/hygrometer to use with the one that we were loaned with the incubator. I also ordered a candler so we can keep a close eye on the eggs and watch their growth and development.
During the set up period, I took notes on how much water I added and where I added it and what the temperature and humidity were reading with each step. Hopefully this will help me to know where to put water on which days to get the humidity right for the different stages of the hatching process.
So, I figured since I'm taking all these notes and trying to be as specific as I can, I might as well blog about it and maybe it will help someone else get through their first hatching experience as well.
I also think it's a lot of fun and really exciting to hatch out chickie babies. My 5 year old son has been asking since our chickens laid their first eggs "Is there a baby in that one?" and every time I have to tell him no. Now I can finally tell him YES! We are all so excited!
The eggs went into the incubator last night and, if all goes according to plan, we should have baby chickies hatching out ON CHRISTMAS DAY!
In this series, I'll try to do one post each day to keep everyone informed on what's going on with our adventure. I can't promise I'll get around to it every single day, but I promise I'll try.
So check back in with us and join us on our adventure as we attempt our very first incubator hatch! You can also keep up with what's going on through our Facebook Page at www.Facebook.com/FifthDayFarm.
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