The Incubator

I had my first foray into incubating eggs. It'll likely be my last. At least, I hope it is. Right after the chicks hatched, I had three hens go broody. If I knew that was going to happen, I would have just stuck eggs under them and let them do the job they are meant to do. Having chickens hatch their own clutches then having to take new born chicks away, incubating and now having a hen raising her little ones in the coop, I much prefer having the hens do the work and not worry about brooders, lights, humidity and so forth. The hen does all that for me. Not that she worries about any of that stuff, she has no use for man-made 'conveniences'. She just becomes a mom. Plus she teaches chicken stuff like scratching effectively on the ground and how to get along with each other. I know most of this is purely instinct but a positive role model is always a good thing.

The incubator is not mine, it was lent to me. The cost was two Buff Orpington chicks from the hatch. I like this informal bartering system that is developing. It's very co-operative and everybody gets what they want and there's no GST on anything.

Using the incubator was a no-brainer. I collected eggs over six days, keeping them at room temperature. I marked each one with the date it was laid, the roo and if the egg was warm or cold when I collected it. Turns out it doesn't matter if an egg is stone cold when collected, it still will hatch. I kept them in big square cardboard egg crate and had one end propped up with a book, alternating the ends morning and night. This is to prevent the yolk from sticking to the side of the egg which impedes the development of the chick.The incubator came with an egg turner so I didn't have to manually turn the eggs several times a day. Nice and convenient. It also had a window in the top so I could look at the eggs without opening it. All I had to do was add water to the tray every three days or so and let the incubator incubate.

A couple a days before the hatch, I removed the egg turner and laid the eggs on a screen lining the incubator. This way, the little chicks won't get squished by turning eggs. I was told to expect anywhere between a 50 - 70 percent hatch rate. So I was expecting about 25 to hatch. The incubator manual said that in the last week before the hatch, I would be turning down the thermostat quite a bit because the eggs would start generating their own heat as the chicks developed. I didn't have to turn down the heat at all so I reduced my expectations to a hatch of no more than 20, if that. Low and behold, over a two day period, 35 out of 42 hatched. So now I have chickens coming out of my ears.

The best thing about the incubator was I actually saw a few chicks hatch. That was just amazing. First the little chick pokes a hole at one end of the egg. I guess it's like a air-hole for them. The books call it 'piping'. The egg rocks every now and then and cracks appear. Then the chick must give a mighty push and the egg splits open revealing a very wet and noisy chick with incredibly big feet. I let the chicks dry off and then removed them in batches.

Out of the seven that didn't hatch, three were just infertile but four had fully developed dead chicks. And the same sire for all of them. I would really like to find out why some chicks will grow to maturity in the egg but not hatch out. One of the little chicks that did hatch out had a swollen tummy and had a yellow ball on. I think the yellow ball was unabsorbed yolk. He died shortly after being born. Another chick cracked the shell but could not get out. Now, 'they' say don't help chicks out of the shell because if they can't manage to get out on their own, they won't make it anyway. I fully intended to do that but the poor little thing was peeping his head off and after a while I just couldn't let him go on all stuck and scared. He also had the swollen belly thing going but no yellow ball. I secluded him just as I did with the one that died. But this little guy hung on and survived. He's smaller than the rest and at first had trouble staying steady on his feet. But he holds his own and nobody picks on him. I've taken to calling him Tiny Tim from the book 'A Christmas Carol'. This little guy is not destined for the freezer, he's a pet. Sigh, as soon as I name 'em, I'm hooped.