How do I buy or make an incubator?

 How do I Buy or to Make an Incubator?
You can buy cheap incubators at feed stores or used on craigslist like the hovabator, (the white styrofoam ones) but I don't recommend it.  You get what you pay for and they do not have a very good hatch rate.  There are many things required in incubating like consistent humidity and temperature. Personally I think making a home made one (even with no experience) is the best bet.  Here are some different resources on building incubators.

1.  BYC (of course)-they have plans for anything from cooler bators to full size refrigerator bators--http://www.backyardchickens.com/chicken-coop-incubator.html
2. Here is a Youtube video to make a simple one form a syrofoam cooler.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQ1tyfvenqQ 
3. Here is a do-it-yourself article form Mother Earth News- http://www.motherearthnews.com/Do-It-Yourself/1982-03-01/Build-Your-Own-Incubator.aspx

After looking at several of these ideas/sites you will start to understand the main components of an incubator.  They are a Your box/shell, heat sources, humidity source, possibly a fan, possibly a thermostat, thermometer/hygrometer (measures humidity) and in fancy models, egg turners.

Putting Together a Homemade Incubator
The shell-of course the better if your shell it is insulated, the better it will hold a consistent temp and humidity, which is important for a good hatch rate. You can use old coolers, small fridges, I have even seen it work in a cardboard box!  Many people like to build in windows so you can see the chicks hatch.  An easy way to do this is to cut a hole in your shell, then take the glass from a 8x10 picture frame (or plexiglass) and silicone it to your shell.  At the bottom of this post are several pictures of home made incubator shells.
Heat source-the simplest answer is incandescent light bulbs.  The picture above is my home made incubator.  I use two 60 watt light bulbs in mine.  They are ran by ceramic lamps that you can buy at the hardware store.  My hubby mounted cords on them for me and installed them in the bator.   Heat rises, so it makes sense to install them low in your shell.
Fan-If you want a bator that will keep more consistent heat throughout, then you can easily add a small fan to circulate the air.  A computer fan works well.  You just have to splice a 12v adapter cord to the fan and mount the fan inside the shell.
Thermostat or no??- you can make do with just light bulbs and try different watt bulbs to try to keep the temp consistent all the time.  I prefer to use a thermostat.  The easiest and most reliable t-stat is the wafer.  You can buy them for about $20 at livestock supply stores.  I think I bought mine at Jeffers.  You just wire it inline to your heat source. Then to set your t-stat, you install your thermometer inside and plug in the lights.  You want your temps as close as 99.5 you can get.  Usually around 100 is good.  102 is too hot and 98 is getting cool.  So you adjust the knob on the t-stat until it stays at the temps you want.  You may have to readjust this periodically.  It is not justified if you are going to just hatch once or twice.
Humidity Source-this is a no brainer!  You just have to put a bowl or jar of water and maybe some sponges until the humidity is at 30-50%.  You will have to refill the water.  I check it every day.  IMPORTANT: when it is close to hatching day (day 21), please make sure the chicks cannot get into the water and drown.
Thermometer and Hygrometer-I bought mine at Walmart for $12. Here is a link to what it looks like;
http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=15907746&findingMethod=rr
It has a probe on a wire that I put inside the incubator so that it can tell the temp and humidity while the unit is on the outside of the bator.  They work great!
Egg Turners- these are cool little things that will tilt your eggs for you so that you don't have to turn them 3 times a day.  (I swear by them!!!)  This really helps when you have hundreds of eggs!  I bought my turners from Jeffers.   If you are planning on having automatic turners, then make sure to accommodate for their size in your shell.  They plug in and slowly turn your eggs 40 degrees, 3 times in 24 hours. Make sure to turn the turners off for the last 3 days.

Hatching and Incubating Eggs

Hatching and Incubating Eggs

Ever thought of hatching eggs yourself?  Or are you like me and already addicted to incubating and hatching?    Hatching can be miraculous and rewarding, I hope this information helps you learn what you need to start or continue to hatch successfully. 

 (Click on the links below.)
How do I buy or make an incubator?
Where do I get eggs to hatch?
Storage of hatching eggs
Adding your eggs to your incubator (day 1)
Days 2-18 of incubation
Days 19-21 of incubation
What in the world is a hatcher?
Hatch day!

Very informative article on incubating and hatching eggs
and another:
http://www.backyardchickens.com/LC-hatch.htmlTroubleshooting hatching problems
Different birds have different hatch lengths.  Here is a chart for most common birds hatch lengths;
http://myweb.cebridge.net/theroost/chart.htm

 Here are a duckling and a chick that just hatched.  Aren't they cute?

Where do you get eggs to hatch?

Getting or Buying Hatching Eggs
You can get them many different places.

1. Collect them from your own birds
2. Buy some from a friend with birds.
3. Ebay (beware that you can get bad deals here as with buying anything else)-- http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p5197.m570.l1313&_nkw=hatching+eggs&_sacat=See-All-Categories   
4. Eggbid -I have never dealt with this site. http://www.eggbid.net/index.php 
5. Backyardchickens.com forum- This is where I buy most of my hatching eggs.  I trust the sellers here the most.  http://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewforum.php?id=36
6. There are some other fun games at BYC like the crazy egg chain (exchanging eggs with other BYC members)-http://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=326027&p=112\
7. There is also the monthly egg swap (you get a surprise of which eggs you get)- http://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=413850
8. Or buy them from a breeder. 
9. My pet chicken-http://www.mypetchicken.com/catalog/Fertile-Hatching-Eggs-c39.aspx?gclid=CMqSjL-uqKwCFccbQgodIEn0Cg

Things to Keep in Mind About Hatching Eggs:
Fertility- One thing is to make sure they are fertile eggs.  The people you are getting the eggs from would need to have a rooster with their hens for this.  Hopefully sellers on websites will have already tried to hatch their eggs and know how fertile they are.  Look for sellers that mention good fertility and hatch rates.
A note about shipped eggs; often when hatching eggs are shipped their hatch rate is not as good as non-shipped eggs.  This is because the air sacs get messed up with rough shipping.  Look for sellers that mention good packing to ship their eggs.  My favorite is the foam with holes drilled in it!
Pullet eggs- When a young hen (pullet) first starts laying, her eggs will usually not be fertile.  Their reproductive systems are not on track yet.  Wait for about 1-2 months after point of lay to collect fertile eggs.
Do not wash- you do not want to wash hatching eggs!  This washes the natural bloom off that the hen puts on them and can let bacteria in through the shell.  For this purpose, you want to use mostly clean eggs or they may not hatch and will be hard to candle.

Livestock Supply Websites

I thought I would compile a list of livestock supply websites in one spot.  It will certainly help me to have them in one spot and I hope it will help you too.  Please e-mail me if you would like new ones added to the list or if a link is old or broken.

Jeffers sells pet and livestock supplies including books, signs, egg cartons, health supplements, feeders etc. They have reasonable prices, with free shipping on orders over $60. I have ordered from here before and had a good experience.
http://www.jefferslivestock.com/article.asp?camid=LIV&ai=135

QC Supply sells lots of livestock equipment.  I have not personally ordered from them before.
http://www.qcsupply.com/farm-livestock.html

TSC sells feeds, livestock equipment, coops, heat lamps etc.  Some people have a local store.  Here is there site.
http://www.tractorsupply.com/livestock/livestock-equipment/chicken-equipment/

Twin City Supply Poultry and Game Bird Supplier is one of my favorites! They sell LOTS of poultry equipment, from books and feeders to incubators and vaccines.  They are very affordable!  I buy my Mareks vaccine here.
http://www.twincitypoultrysupplies.com/store/

And here is a site with a list of more sites;
http://www.backyardchickens.com/LC-supplies.html

Improving my Blog

I would like to add some useful links to sites and information that I feel are helpful to raising chickens and other hobby birds.  They will be about things like diseases, hatching and raising chickens, how to give vaccinations and where to buy them, hatcheries and their customer service, mixing your own food, herbal remedies and much more.  The plan is to make a post about each one and then put links to them on the right side of my blog page so they are accessible all the time.  So you should see a lot of new posts in the near future.  I hope this is not annoying. 

Have a great day!

Happy Fall to You All!

Hi everyone.  Since the weather is getting cooler and I am spending more time inside, I thought I would write an update on our farm.  About two months back, I sold all our young turkeys to a couple down the road, as they were just eating too much.  Then we butchered our 2 broad breasted turkeys about a month ago.  George was 32 lbs dressed and Rosanna was 18 lbs!  50 pounds of meat for winter!  George will be cooked up for Thanksgiving and leftovers made into home canned chicken noodle soup!  I will definitely be raising some more of these next year.  They were easy to care for, did eat a fair bit, but gave us a good return in meat.  Below is a pic of the smaller Oregon Gray poults when they were young.  Unfortunately, I forgot to get pics of George and Rosanna.

A couple of months ago I got some more birds from a friend of mine who had to sell all of hers.  I bought 13 muscovy ducks, 7 buckeye chickens (these guys are mousers and ratters!), and a few misc. chickens, about 50 birds in all.  So I have a total of 15 muscovies now.  I will save the 2 adult hens, my adult drake and all the teen girls.  I will butcher the extra teen drakes in the next month or so.  Funny enough, muscovies are so heavy that I thought they could not fly.  None of mine had ever tried.  So two days ago I look out the window and there is a young scovie hen on top of my chicken coop!  This is like a 12 foot tall roof!  It was funny to see!  So apparently they can fly if they want to.  These ducks are mild-mannered, quiet, don't take much care and lay huge eggs!  I think this breed of duck is a win-win.


When I got these new ducks, I added them to the meat animal side of the pasture.  (One side of my pasture is for my pet birds and one side is for the meat animals.)  Well I kept putting food out and they kept emptying the bowl and acting hungry.  I couldn't figure out how they were eating so much.  Then one day I filled the bowls and watched as the sheep ran up and ate it all!  I tried chasing them off, but they would come right back.  I tried spraying them with the hose, same...  It got so frustrating, along with the fact that the sheep were not growing very quickly, that I sold them!  I ended up making a little money since they were bigger than when I bought them, so I was happy.

Remember the cute "pregnant" goats we had on loan?  Well after a month of being late, I called a new friend that is very knowledgeable about goats and she came to look at them.  She told us that they were just fat and not pregnant!  So I talked with my friend, who owns the goats.  She offered that I could keep them and breed them again for next spring.  I had a lot going on and decided not to take her offer.  So we packed them up and took them back to her house.  They were sweet pets, like dogs, but they didn't work out for what we wanted them for.  It was a good learning experience though. 

One of the reasons I decided not to keep more responsibilities at that time, was because I had just learned that I have type two diabetes.  I had been feeling terribly ill for the last month (end of June and beginning of July) and I finally got into the doctor.  They told me I had diabetes and that my blood sugar, which should stay around 110, was at 412!  So I had a huge learning curve to find out how to manage this and get healthy.  I am now healthy and off the insulin shots and exercising more and feeling great!  I now eat gluten, dairy and sugar free. 

Since I have stopped hatching, I have less income from the animals.  I had bred the rabbits and had many teens to sell, but none were selling.  Maybe it is due to the time of year.  Since our family wasn't comfortable eating the rabbits and that is why I was raising them, I decided it was best to sell them.  They were going through a 50 lb bag of feed in less than a week.  The feed has gone up to $16 a a bag recently too!  So I ended up selling all 24 rabbits to a guy (who also raises birds) for $100.  It is a very low price since I also gave him all my cages, water bottles, feeders, the rest of the feed, baby boxes, and everything we had for them.  But it was the best I could find and they we are not having to feed them anymore.  Shyanne will miss them as she fed and watered them every day as well as spending time with them.  You know girls and cute, cuddly animals. =}

Speaking of cute, cuddly animals, I had bought the kids each a chinchilla last spring for Easter.  They were becoming a lot of work for the kids and they were not getting much attention.  So we all decided to sell them.  We found a 17 year old girl who was very excited to buy and spend time with them.  She will give them a good home.

I also ended up selling my flock of Giant Cochins.  For some reason I lost both of my roosters within 1 month of each other, this summer.  Also, being big birds, they eat a fair bit and are kinda poor layers.  They often take breaks and their eggs are medium sized too.  So even though I love their temperament, I decided to try a different mild-mannered breed that laid better.  They are buff Brahmas.  They are technically David's birds.  He bought them when they were chicks, with his own money.  I mostly take care of them, but he helps.  He has already sold his first dozen of hatching eggs!  They are very sweet birds and are reported to lay huge eggs.  (ours are still pullet sized so far)

Izzie (the gosling I hatched this spring), who is generally called Goosie, is doing well.  She is now part of the adult group of geese.  We now have 4 total.  She gets along well with her parents and aunt.  We still hope she is a she.  When I leave the duck gate open for them to free range, she will go into their coop and sit on duck eggs. =}  She still makes her baby sounds, woo-woo-woooo and calls to me when every I go out the back door.

I have to go do some chores outside with the animals now.  I will write more later.