Investing in the Future

I've heard that egg prices at the grocery store are pretty high due to this bird flu thing.  Our birds are healthy, the days are getting longer, and today they laid 17 eggs.  We eat all we can, give some to the boys and sell the rest.  But, since the minks decimated the flock last year, we haven't really recovered.  We were down to 9 hens.  That's the lowest amount we ever had, I believe, since we started.  Fortunately, we had another batch of hens in the chicken tractor in our yard when the mink started their killing spree.  The ones in the yard were spared.  I think I counted 24 hens this afternoon.

I figure it is time to increase the numbers of the flock.  I searched the hatcheries online from whence we normally order day old chicks.  Holy Moly!  Straight run (probably 50-50 hen/rooster ratio) are $4 per chick, and all female chicks are $4.65 per chick.  That's steep.  We opted to save 42 eggs from our flock.  This means we forego eating them and forego selling them, but delayed gratification is where it's at.  After about 4 days, I had enough saved to fill the incubator.

42 eggs in all will fit in the incubator.  It will be a mixed bag, for sure.  We have Rhode Island Reds, Golden Comets, Aracaunas, and Barred Rock birds.  They are all mixed up, though.  No telling what we'll get.  Last time we hatched some out, we got a 74% hatch rate and about 50% were roosters.  The roosters are butchered and made into chicken and sausage gumbo.  The hens are incorporated into the flock and begin laying eggs at around 5 1/2 months from hatch.

I placed the eggs in the incubator and plugged it in.  The incubator has an egg turner that slowly shifts the eggs.  This is helpful as it keeps you from having to rotate them.  I added water into the reservoir at the bottom that serves to keep the humidity just right in the incubator.  The goal is to try to keep the eggs at 100 degrees Fahrenheit.  I had just turned it on, so it took a little while to warm it up, but we found that the thermostat was set perfectly.

So there is the scoreboard.  We know when they were put in the incubator and how many, and when the chicks should hatch out.

We've learned there is truth to the old adage, "Don't count your chickens before they hatch."  In three weeks, we'll certainly check in on the chicks and report our hatch rate to you.