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Custom incubating?

Posted: Thu Jul 06, 2017 8:05 am
by Farrier1987
I see this ad on my local Chatham kijiji. Is this done very often, and how does it generally work out? I would be glad to hear others experiences/comments.

http://www.kijiji.ca/v-livestock/chatha ... nFlag=true

Re: Custom incubating?

Posted: Thu Jul 06, 2017 8:15 am
by Killerbunny
I believe Kathy @WLLady does custom hatching.

Re: Custom incubating?

Posted: Thu Jul 06, 2017 9:27 am
by WLLady
last year clawton and i custom hatched a pile of ducks and chickens for a fellow, he filled both our incubators, and i think we swamped him in fuzzies....it was 100s of fuzzies. literally! we would call him and meet half way between wherever he was and we were with BOXES of fuzzybutts in the trucks. LOL.

colin, it really depends on the person doing it for you. like anything it can be messed up if the power goes out etc (i have access to a generator and a power supply if the power does go out). and if they keep the humidity right etc. i actually don't get a lot of requests for custom hatches because people will use the custom hatching service a couple of years and then go buy their own incubators.

personally i have not used a custom hatch service ever....unless hiring ones self for no pay is regarded as using a hatching service LOL

with the hydro prices i am 1$ in 2$ out for ducks, geese, guineas and anything ~4 weeks or longer; 50 cents in 1.50$ out for chickens. i will brood for up to 48 hours after hatch, which is why i'm a little more expensive than other people. i found it just makes it easier if there are late hatchers, i don't need to accrue any birds and people generally want to pick up everything all at once. and to cover the feed and heat lamp for the couple days i charge more.

Re: Custom incubating?

Posted: Thu Jul 06, 2017 2:21 pm
by kenya
I hatched out runner ducks for a friend, a dozen eggs 2 quit early and 10 hatched and are doing fine. He was floored the hatch was so good. Now hes swamped with ducklings LOL he never expected so many to hatch. I don't often hatch for other people but of course I have many times for people who are having trouble getting any to hatch. For those hard to hatch birds I use a broody, I always used bantam barred rocks but I no longer have any. They were broody machines and would hatch out 3 different broods. Usually the last hatch I would let them keep a few for their troubles.
I think its its great if someone else will look after and hatch the eggs if you can't yourself or are having trouble. As already was mentioned many things can go wrong with an incubator such as power outages. The cost is worth it, usually they have backup generators and much larger incubators so you could have all your babies at once and not have to separate for different ages.