First incubator run of 2012
Last year, I stumbled through
learning
to incubate eggs to
produce homegrown chicks, so this year I'm ready to put my newfound
knowledge into practice. And to experiment some more, of course.
One thing we learned is
to go ahead and start chicks at the right time of year rather than
waiting and hoping that a broody hen will decide to sit on some
eggs. I have high hopes that our Cuckoo Marans will feel
motherly...eventually...but since the pasture will be at its peak in
April, May, and June, I want to have our first chicks struggling out of
their shells at the beginning of March.
I put 21 eggs in the
incubator, which is as many as will fit laying down on their sides for
hatch. Since that left a bit of room when the eggs sit upright
for the first 19 days, I added newspaper spacers in the center of the
incubator, where hatch
rates have historically been lower.
Mark your calendars for
fluffy cuteness around March 3!
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About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.
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