Frugal Living
Hatching Eggs in Homemade Incubators

THERE ARE MANY PHOTOGRAPHS ON THIS PAGE, IT COULD TAKE SOME TIME TO LOAD

My incubators each comprise a polystyrene box, a 10w halogen lightbulb, a fan (the type used in desktop computers), a thermostat and a small glass viewing panel. They run off a 12v convertor plugged into the mains electricity.

When asked what came first, the chicken or the egg, I need to say, 'THE EGG'. That's the order I've done things - First the incubator, then the egg, then the chicks. My first experimental hatching resulted in only one Silkie chick out of half a dozen eggs. My next experiment was buying a dozen mixed eggs without knowing what types of hens laid them. It was a great guessing game. We got 6 that hatched from the mixed dozen. They were incubated alongside 6 blue Lavender Araucana eggs, of which only 2 hatched but there's a lethal gene involved there that doesn't concern actual; hatching of eggs in the incubator.
15/04/09 - This is one of the eggs that got put into the incubator on 26th March. These are due to hatch anytime and have started to 'pip' 15/04/09 - This is a lavender splash Pekin egg that pipped this afternoon. By 3.30pm it was starting to hatch. The egg has now been chipped all the way around
The chick begins to push the egg shell apart A few more hard pushes and the shell splits Another push and the shell breaks in two
The chick appears, uncurling from it's ball shape, emerging backwards First view of the chick's head as it frees itself from top half of the shell Chick gets it's foot out to kick free of the shell
4.45pm - The chick finally completes its hatch The chirping and movement of the first chick stimulates the others to try harder! 6.30pm This is the first of the Silkie eggs beginning to hatch
This is the Silkie egg that had been doing the violent rocking last night
 One more violent push and the chick bursts from the egg and I practically missed it with the camera! 7pm and Silkie chick is hatched and mobile, it looks like it could be a blue one, but Silkies have black skin, so it's quite hard to tell at the moment.
11pm and there are no more chicks yet, although there are at least 6 eggs with beaks poking out. Silkie & Pekin are still in the incubator. 11.40pm A second Silkie chick has hatched, it looks like it's partridge coloured. 6 more eggs still in the process of hatching. 16/04/09 - 2am (ish) - 3 more have hatched out, egg at front of picture at a well advanced stage of hatching and 2 others have split shells.
16/04/09 - 2am (ish) Egg just about to hatch, the lid is flapping each time the chick pushes against it. 16/04/09 - Sometime during the early hours, the hatch was completed at 9 chicks, all of which were transferred to the brooder at 7am 17/04/09 - There are 9 chicks in total, now all fluffed up, drinking and have been pecking at the chick crumbs
17/04/09 - The littlest chick, one of the lavender splash pekins 17/04/09 - A very heavily marked lavender splash pekin (turned out to be blue) 17/04/09 - The stripey, partridge coloured Silkie chick
Comparing the colouring, our other Silkie chick looks more like a female Silbar 17/04/09 - I think this Silkie chick could be a white one but it has flecks, so could be a cuckoo. I'll be absolutely delighted if it is! (It was white) 17/04/09 - No guarantees, but I am guessing this silkie chick will be blue. (I was wrong, it was white!)
17/04/09 - My guess is that this Silkie chick could be white as there are no other marks on it. 17/04/09 - This Silkie chick is absolutely gorgeous, I think it could also be blue, but not sure yet. 17/04/09 - The other 2 lavender splash Pekin chicks are very alike.
02/05/09 The grey/blue chicks are actually white! 23/05/09 The partridge coloured chick and one of the white ones have already been booked as sold This Pekin chick turned out to be a lemon hen, so we kept her. This is Fonzie.
Bernard Black turned out to be a Mrs Blue, so we've kept her, too. We got a cockerel and a hen in the lavender splash Pekins, so we traded Mr Splashy for Mr Chirpy and kept Mrs Splashy. Mr Chirpy, ourwheaten Pekin cockerel bred by a friend, seen alongside our blue hen. She was the first to start laying.

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