Poultry Talk Ontario (pto.ca)

one day I'll learn how to count to 21 (run out of fingers n toes) and follow a plan

So the good Reverend (my wife Carla) wanted chicks for Easter to talk about spring and new life for children's story time. Can I get you to hatch some for Easter? sure, no problem
And of course it was a big hit with the city folk: kids and adults, but I'm getting ahead.

So I have a sportsman incubator (up to 300 eggs) and I hate to run it for a dozen eggs so I got some eggs from my sister (20 Buckeye rooster over red hybrid laying hens) and two dozen partridge chantecler from "Dave". I have buckeye hens (lost my rooster over the winter and have yet to retreive my "spare" from my sister as my pen construction is incomplete) and cream legbar hens with a cream legbar rooster so I set two dozen eggs from this group.

The plan was to start the 'bator on the Wednesday three weeks before Easter and set eggs on the Thursday or Friday for chicks for Sunday.

So my busy season hit and it was Saturday before I was up and running so eggs were set.

So the Good Friday I figured I should set plan B in motion and buy a few chicks from someone in case my hatch messes up and I lost count, 21 days? 21 full days? what time did I set them? The only lady I know (Lisa) would have chicks brings a lot of stuff for sale at bird auctions and the Saturday was the Alfred sale so if I buy from her I put up my money on Friday.
So a few kijiji searches and a phone call later; the only chicks were around Smiths Falls (half way to Kingston) or Embrun (East Ottawa) as both are an hour out of my way ($20 gas and my time worth $30) and chicks were all mutts and over priced so I pulled the trigger and bought 6 maran chicks from Lisa for $60 (I can sell them later no problem).

Sunday morn 4am (Easter sunrise service? sheesh) we wake up and there's 20 chicks hatched in the bator. More hatch on Monday, and today I pull another dozen out. Headcount somewhere past 50. Hatch rate over 80%. And they are all mixed together so good luck sorting them out. Renfrew Buy/sell/trade is the end of May so I should be able to tell them apart and sell some by then.

and another "slow" year is off to a great start.

Haha reminds me of the saying " counting your chicks before they hatch " more or less . More chicken bbqs . Luck

Thank you for a great morning read!!!!
Of course you do realize that there were only two possibilities, either too many chicks or none at all, so really you had the winner and Renfrew sale can't be too far away, you should be a great hit with your Easter chicks!!!

The struggle is real!
You put a smile on my face today Bert.
Hey, on the bright side, you didn't fill the incubator, and Murphys' law says that if you'd only put a dozen eggs in, you wouldn't have gotten any chicks at all.
Large brooders just moved to the top of your to-do list??

my to do list?
I need to hire a crew to hit my to do list. everything on the "its on fire"
list gets done, the rest sooner or later

go big or go home. I have a brooder "room" planned for the basement with one way airflow and exhaust going outside.

today the power went out so I had a bankers box by the woodstove until the power came back (basement is under ten degrees otherwise)

then our "indestructable" dog went to the vet to patch her her up again = $600. (one easter was a porcupine = $200, then a beaver at $1500) at least the coyotes know a crazy dog lives here so they keep a distance. I had to use my jujitsu skills to keep her restrained even with the drugs. now she wants to sit on my lap.

Incubator full of chicks, bought a bunch of chicks, ok so I understand what you are saying Bert but I'm still not seeing the problem! You do realize this is a site for enabling, not a site for curing right?

Bert the only problem I see now is it sounds like your incubator is now empty. You need to fix that asap!!!

JimW

I don't think you should let the dog play with a chainsaw, seeing that his safety record isn't that good.