Turn on the heat!

Despite the chilly temperatures that appeared out of nowhere, the chickens have determined it is time to lay eggs, and indeed they have been.  All this Egg-citement has caused incubators to be pulled out of the closet and cleaned in anticipation of many new chicks being added this spring.  I also spent some time cleaning out the brooders and making sure we have a place to put them once they arrive.  Safely tucked out of the way in the front bedroom,  are the two incubators with a small  brooder in between.  The brooder will make a great place for the eggs to hatch and chicks to dry before being moved to the bigger brooder and will allow me to quickly start new batches of eggs.

Middle: brooder without heated top installed at the moment

Now that the first incubator is full, the heat is on and we have 21 days of patiently waiting to see what will arrive.  There should be chicks for everyone in the family to enjoy as there are eggs from different varieties of Cochins- Blue, black, splash, and gold laced.  We also have eggs from our light Brahma and Silver laced wyandotte.

Grow babies, Grow!

New Quail babies are here!

Things have been extremely busy around here since I started college and then the holidays crept up on me!  Matter of fact, I have been so busy that I actually forgot I had 6 quail eggs sitting in the incubator until the exact day they should have hatched.  Realizing I had not prepared for the quail to hatch ( I forgot to add water to the incubator to up the humidity, and forgot to turn off the automatic turner too!) I was not expecting for any to hatch.  However,  just in case, I added water, turned off the auto- turner and locked the incubator down with every intention of tossing out the eggs two days later.

24 hours later and we have 6 of the cutest, tiniest valley quail chicks I ever saw.  Doesn't matter that they are the first valley quail chicks I ever saw either, I am convinced they are the cutest!  All of them are smaller than my thumb!  I can't wait to watch them grow into beautiful, mature birds.

Nest box Give away!

All my hens are Egg-cited at the chance to win a brand new 2 hole  nest box from Hen Pals nest boxes made in the wonderful state of Georgia.  That's practically local!  Matter of fact, my girls are coming up on 5 months of age and will be needing those boxes soon!   We don't mind telling everyone how nice it would be to have one, especially since spreading the word gets us 3 more entries into the drawing.  You can check them out yourself here----->     Hen Pals Nest Boxes

Remember a while back I was dreaming about incubators?  Well I stumbled across a deal this past week and actually ended up with one very close to the one I dreamed of.  Actually, I ended up with two, the one on the right doubles as a brooder! 
Sarcastically, Jeff tabulated the amount of eggs I could hatch at one time with the 3 incubators at almost 100.  Oh how the little evil genius on my shoulder laughed with glee at the thought!  THEN, Jeff mentioned he would like to raise quail.  Oh My Quail!   Well how can I possibly refuse?!   The search begins.... 

Brinsea Incubators        Go Big Red!!

The 21 Day Countdown

Brinsea Octogon 20 EX package

I like the idea of sustainable resources.  The more I think about it, the more I like the idea that with a little investment and some time you can get a continual return on something.  ( After having four kids I would really like to use them as an analogy for sustainable sarcasm, but I figure that is mostly genetic and  this is a blog about chickens!)    So, it was only natural, as my ideas evolved, I would start searching for the perfect incubator!    Here is my dream incubator, the Brinsea octagon 20 EX.  It is completely digital, completely automatic, completely out of my price range even on sale at $399.    Brinsea makes some awesome incubators and always get rave reviews, and they do have less expensive models.  I just figure I would share the one   I would buy if I had  unlimited funds.  You can check out more information on their incubators here -  Brinsea

Even after checking out the classifieds a used incubator was hard to find and the prices ran from $50 to $120.   After a couple months of searching I found one for $10 !!  Once I got home, I washed it with soap and water and plugged it in to test it out.  It took a few days of playing with it to get it stay at 100 degrees, but once it was set I couldn't wait to start collecting eggs to put in it.   Having gathered some eggs from our Rhode island reds and a few from the mille fleur d'uccles,
I grabbed a color pencil and put X's on one side and O's on the other so I could keep track while turning them 3 times a day for the next 21 days.   I was so excited to put them in the incubator I dropped one, breaking it and cracking another!  GAAHHH!!!     I did eventually get 12 eggs safely inside, resting at a warm tropical 100 degrees.   After getting everything done I sat down and pulled out my calendar to calculate when they should begin to hatch.  Funny, the date is July 4th- Independence Day .   I'll take pictures and keep you updated as the hatch progresses!