Chicken Eggs Incubator Progression Feb 2016 (new info added)

Chicken Eggs-Feb 2016
New info added each week:

We are trying to hatch 22 Buff Orpington's

Dd has started a new blog to document her work with the future chicken flock; here it is if you are interested:
http://michiganchickens.blogspot.com/

We moved out to the country so I could raise my own chickens; and we've started down that path this month!!!  Yay!  Although, Dh is not nearly as excited as Dd and I are!!!!

Rooster- Buff Orpington

Our first batch of eggs didn't work out, as the home-made incubator wasn't working right, and the heat in the incubator went way high...which means the eggs got too hot.  Our friend, Michele, had her husband look at the machine (since he is the one that put it together twenty years ago) and he was able to fix it.  So a few days later we got the incubator back and a new set of eggs.  She gave us 22 Buff Orpington (see pictures above to see what they look like) eggs to try again with.

Here Dd is writing, in pencil, a "x" on one side; and an "o" on the flip-side.  This will help us with our turning of the eggs.

This is the incubator!  Michele's husband put it together with parts from all sorts of things...but, it works great.  You can see the two blue and one red peanut butter lid under the shelf inside the incubator; those caps are where we pour water into the container throughout the day to give the eggs the right amount of humidity for best growing--you can see the water pitcher on the left side of the picture.

After Dd marked each egg, then she started moving them into the incubator.  The heat is set at 101 degrees.  If it gets too hot the heating element goes off and the fan turns on.

  

This isn't all the eggs, but a good picture showing the eggs and incubator.  Now we are on day 8 or 9 and have "candled" all our eggs, and so far they are growing well and very active! Yay!

We are still looking at all our chicken books, trying to figure out our next steps.  Next week we will try to build the next home for the chicks after they hatch.  Dd and I are equally excited our new project!

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Day Thirteen, of our chicken eggs:

Brooder House: Chicken Prep:

This was the form I wrote up to make sure we didn't have our eggs up on the "X" two nights in a row.  By following my chart, we were sure to have them alternating each night; regardless of the day's rotation.  We only had to turn the eggs three times per day, but we rotated them more than that.  When we got closer to the 18th day, we started slowed down how much we touched them.  

At their 18th day, we have to put them all alike, but more vertical, rather than laying down flat, with the bigger/rounded end on the top, and the pointy end down.  Their egg sack should be in the rounded part, and having that on the top should help their hatching.  You can see the humidity monitor; where we make sure we focus on keeping it higher these last days.

We were keeping the incubator's humidity at around 60%, starting the 18th day the humidity has to be around 80%.  I brought in our humidifier to help keep the whole room more humid.

 Dd made the brooder house this week.  You have to design the brooder box with rounded corners so the chicks can't pile up on each other, and possibly crushing a chick.  

 We haven't put in the newspapers yet.  Dd put in a temperature reading prob and then kept working until she had the heat light placed exactly high enough to get a 95 degree reading on the floor.  She put the heating lamp to one side, so if the chicks are hot they can go over to the cool side to cool down, or get right under the lamp to warm up.

Now all we need are the chicks!  We bought the feed, the watering thing, and pine shavings for the bottom cover.  First we are to use something not slippery for the floor cover the first few days; just not newspaper since that is slick and slippery.  I have some "painting shirts" and lots of those red rags you buy for home projects--I'll have to get those out and ready.

I was also thinking I might put up a door and cardboard to block the air drafts that could come in the sun-room from our front door.  The books all say to have the room be draft-free.  Also, perhaps Dd could build us a second brooder home to put out in the garage (or outbuilding), so we can move our chicks out there after their first few delicate days in the sun-room.  I keep reading how we shouldn't have the birds in our house due to 'chick dust' that is very unhealthy for people to inhale.  But, I do want them inside the first few days where we can keep a constant eye on them.

Tractor Supply Website has the Buff Orpington's as the chick of the week---here is what they said about these chickens:

William Cook was a humble coachman living in the Kentish town of Orpington, in England, and he had an idea. He began crossing Minorca roosters with Black Plymouth Rock hens, and then the offspring to clean-legged Langshan chickens. His goal was to develop a hardy, fast growing chicken that laid well and yet had the table qualities the British market sought. In 1886 he introduced his creation to the public – it was a success and within 10 years Orpington chickens were well established in England and began to be exported to other countries.

William Cook enjoyed a rare commodity – success – and his fortunes grew. But it is not his entrepreneurial spirit that is to be celebrated, but his skill in breeding. Mr. Cook focused his breeding efforts on developing the body and productive traits of his poultry; in the process many birds came as they might in color pattern. Thus Mr. Cook had the bright idea to create many varieties of his Orpington chickens. He first introduced the Black, and then the White Orpington, the Buff, the Jubilee [Speckled], and the Spangled [Mottled]. His son-in-law, A.C. Gilbert, created the Blue and the Cuckoo Orpingtons.

Orpington chickens reached America by 1891. In 1903 William Cook himself brought over a large importation and showed them in America. Farmers of the mid-western states favored the Buff Orpington chicken for its generally superior table-qualities, and its unique color – different than most general-purpose breeds. Orpingtons continued to boom until the poultry industry experienced a depression about 1912.

The qualities that won all the Orpington chicken varieties recognition were fast rate of growth, excellent egg production, and excellent table-quality. Historically, Orpington chickens made excellent broilers weighing 2 to 2.5 lbs at 8-10 weeks of age, excellent roasting chickens at 5 months of age, and excellent old fowl for the table as well. They are first-rate layers of large light to dark brown eggs.

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