Getting started

Today I set my first "real" hatching eggs... very eggciting (if you pardon the pun... the only time it will appear here, honest!)

My first set hatching eggs of the season

So I have two sets of six eggs from two different breeding pens of CLBs.  They candled with no cracks yesterday, so new I'm eagerly awaiting next Sunday to candle again to check viability.  I'm so hoping that they have survived the postage process OK.

The two brown eggs in the middle are a couple from my (supposed) Marans just to check fertility... they both seem to be viable at day 7, but it is difficult to see as the shells are soooo thick!

I have some eggs which should arrive next week, no doubt this blog will be pretty quiet until then.

Saturday 29th Jan: Setting up the "incubation room"

Once again it was cold and wet outside, so I didn't get much done in the garden/chicken pen. I did test out my new "girly" chainsaw though:

The Black and Decker GKC1817 is a cordless electric chainsaw. It weighs only 2.5kg with the battery attached, which makes it very handy and easy to use for a person, like me, who is not used to wielding heavy equipment. Obviously being electric it doesn't have the muscle to do any major work, but I think it will do to help me cut up the downed branches I need to tidy up quite nicely.

So, not being able to get out into the garden, I turned my attention to my "incubation room" which is actually me spare bedroom. I like it for incubation as it is an enclosed space (the rest of my house being open plan), and I can keep it at a steady temperature. It also has a lino floor for easy cleaning (not my choice! it came with the house.) Of course, as with all good incubations rooms it also has a comfy chair, books and a TV with blu-ray player for hatching times LOL. I spent yesterday afternoon putting up a shelf and organising my incubators:

Incubation and hatching set up

So now I have room for my new hatcher which should arrive next week.  I think I need more hygrometers though.  My house is very dry, and the relative humidity in the room is only 20%,  therefore, even with the fully auto incubators I like to have a seconday check... but getting accurate, and reasonably inexpensive hygrometers is pretty difficult.

Excitement at lunchtime

I received my first hatching eggs of the year from a member of The Poultry Garden which is one of the most friendly poultry fora I know of.  They are Cream Legbar (CLB), and are from some show winning stock.  I candled them all, and all 12 survived the postage system without cracks... nice one Em for careful packaging.  I let them rest and come up to room temperature before I set them.

Another thing I spent time doing was putting together an Excel sheet to track incoming eggs, cost, source, breed, outcome etc.

Example of chook tracking sheet

It will also record any chicks which are leg rung, and their ring numbers... hopefully I will also be able to use it to track sales, and show points.

All in all quite a productive day

Moving on to 2011: new projects

Well after a good start in 2009 with my little chicklets I am now completely addicted to chickens!

In 2010 I had my first experience with raising chickens for meat, I adapted my garden to include a permanent chicken pen, and I hatched my first eggs in an incubator.

This year I have rather grander plans:

I am modifying my chicken pen into smaller breed pens and I plan to rais some purebreed chickens, and hopefully show them in some "chicken shows" later this year.

At the moment I have silver laced, blue laced and buff laced bantam wyandotte eggs booked, and due for posting on Monday 31 Jan. I have 12 cream legbar (CLB) eggs which, hopefully, should arrive tomorrow 29th Jan. I also have 12 black brahma eggs arriving at the ned of next week.

Further to this I have ordered more CLB eggs for the middle of Feb, and I've reserved some cochin, brahma and Faverolles eggs. I have also sent email enquiries for silver black and silver blue Marans eggs.

If they all turn up, I should be incubating in the region of 110 eggs this spring, which should hopefully result in approximately 25 pullets (based up on 50% hatch rate for posted eggs, and 50% pullet:cockeral ratio of hatchlings.

I intend to use this blog to redord eggs received, and chicks hatched, as well as the growth of the chicks into chooks.