21 Days and Counting

DW got all the eggs she needed yesterday so we fired up the incubator and set 17 eggs. We noticed that with the eggs in there, the incubator dips in temperature faster and takes longer to recover than it did when it was empty. We changed the light bulb from 25 to 40 watt so the temp would normalize more quickly. So far the temperature has been, on average, less than we would like, but within an acceptable range. At the very least it might take a day or more for them to hatch. The big thing to watch out for is letting the temp get too high and stay there. Anything over 102 degrees for more than a few minutes would probably kill the embryos. All we can do is wait and see.



We also lost one of our meat chicks to illness (I think) last night. We're down to 22 meat chicks and one (unidentified) rare chick. The meat chicks are starting to soil their brooder pretty quickly, so they'll probably be moved to the chicken tractor fairly soon. They're still very lively and healthy. We'll have to wait and see, but last batch seemed much more lazy and apathetic. That could have something to do with the heat.

Next month is turkey and pig month. The feed store gets their turkeys in March or April, so we plan to pick up three. That way if we lose one we'll still have one for Thanksgiving and Christmas. I'll also be calling the pig man in a few weeks. He sells show pigs year round and should have a few piglets that he's willing to sell as feeders (i.e. - not show quality). I built a new pig feeder that is cemented into the ground and has a lid they can open. We will also be setting up an automatic waterer. Both of these things will make feeding them everyday much faster and cleaner. We used to have to search the entire pen for the food pan, the entire time getting slimed by a very muddy and hungry pig. If it works, we should very rarely have to set foot inside the pen.