Hello from Norfolk. UK

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KittyKat

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Hi all, I've been keeping chickens for a few years now and have been lurking around the forum for a while so I thought it was about time to register.

I currently keep ex-battery hens, Norfolk Greys and Wyandottes, and I am expecting some Light Sussex hatching eggs today. The ex-battery hens were our first adult introduction to chickens a few years ago now (our families used to keep them when we were young) and we soon after had to get the Norfolk Greys as we are only a few miles from their place of origin so it seemed very appropriate. With a few of our older hens passing on, we raised the Wyandottes from chicks earlier this year and now want to add a couple of Light Sussexes to the brood.
 
Hi KittyCat and welcome to the Forum.
You are quite brave to be setting eggs at this time of year, we shall be interested to hear how you get on. Last Autumn Eirwen took on some chicks in winter, and there's a long thread there about how she got them through the long dark cold days, very successfully but it was hard work.
See http://poultrykeeperforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=8635&p=51551#p51551
 
Welcome to the forum KittyKat. As said, setting eggs this time of year in the UK will cost hell of a lot in electricity during the rearing stage. Something to be done as a last resort, even down here. We will be loading an incubator in a few weeks hopefully, as a last resort, because we are down to one Leghorn hen and if anything happens to her over Winter we have lost the breed (we have two cockerels). Electricity here is much cheaper than the UK though.
 
Thanks for the link, I'll give that a read!

We actually raised the Wyandottes indoors, so we have an idea of what to expect. We bought them in two age groups, one of which was indoors until 8 weeks old and the other until 10 weeks old (free ranging outdoors during the day as they got older) and we are happy to do the same again. We generally have relatively mild weather over winter (we had no snow last year and only two weeks the year before, which was an especially cold year, if you remember) so I think that as they feather up, they should be warm enough with the (cheaper, gas) central heating, but we can offer extra heat if they need it. If for some reason they cannot go outside right until sprint, then they can have the conservatory all to themselves as we don't use it and that also heated with central heating.

We did change the bedding at least once per day (and more like 1.5 times per day as they got bigger), but it wasn't much of a chore as I line everything with waterproof, removable sheets, so it's a matter of rolling it up and sliding it into the bin bag and disinfecting it before replacing. I now have two sets of liners so that I can swap them out every day and let them dry naturally between cleaning.
 
It would be interesting if you wanted to start a new thread about your hatch, as it's always good to keep up with a project like this. It sounds as if these will certainly not be your 'first babies'!
Just out of interest, what made you want to hatch at this time of year, when its so much easier in the Springtime?
 
Mostly that we're needing more eggs than our current hens produce as the ex-battery hens are pretty much at the end of their egg laying lives (and in some cases, very likely their lives). I suspect that we have ISA Brown which used to produce 1 egg each per day when we first got them (with the exception of one which never laid a good egg) and we're now down to 1 egg per day between all of them as they're skipping days and laying very soft shelled or shell-less eggs which often break on impact or get stood on.

We have the Wyandottes which will come into lay in about 2-3 months, but even with them being added we still won't have enough and I wouldn't be surprised if at least one more of our ex-battery hens dies in the next 6 months. The ex-battery hens came to us in quite poor condition and two had long term health problems (one of which passed away earlier this year). We could buy POL chickens now or in a few months, but we both prefer to raise chicks as they turn out much friendlier and tamer. That way, we also know that they've been looked after… I guess what it comes down to is that we'd rather raise our own ahead of time as we can't really bring ourselves to buy eggs from a shop any more. We are also aiming to raise another batch of chicks next year, but only have space to raise one lot at a time.

I also know that for the next 6 months, we are not planning to go anywhere, but we usually travel a fair bit in the spring, so I would prefer to raise the chicks while they have our undivided attention rather than relying on friends to check up on them.

The eggs didn't get dispatched until today for some reason, so I have until tomorrow to figure out how long I want to let them settle for. I have read everything from 2 to 12 hours is recommended. I will start a thread, but it might be a few days before I get a chance to take some photos and get up to speed. I will be taking detailed notes, as always, of course.
 
I was told they need at least 24 hours to settle Kittykat. So that contradicts your information. But they sit in the incubator for a while to warm up, so maybe you should switch off the auto turning for the first day.
 
Hi Chris, I'm going to be manual turning as the "12 egg" incubator only takes 6 of my hens' eggs for autoturning. The seller recommended 24 hours as well. They also just told me that some of the older eggs were collected between last Thursday and yesterday, so getting a bit worried about how well they will hatch as they would have been sitting around for 3-7 days if I leave them for 24 hours (which also seems to be a common recommendation).
 
We don't bother hatching with eggs older than 7 days because then we start to get failures KittyKat. But a lot depends on storage and handling and I have heard claims of hatches from eggs much older than that. Another factor is going to be cleanliness if you are manual turning, because of the frequent contact with the eggs and the risk of introducing bacteria through the shells. We use a cheap'ish semi-automatic, so no contact with the eggs but you have to push or pull the tray handle 3 times a day. That's no problem as we check the temperature more often than that. We have had two incubator failures mid -hatch and lots of power cuts in the past. So we have a mains failure alarm, backup incubator and short and long term electricity generation systems.
 
I was planning to use sterile disposable gloves for handling the eggs at all times, which I hope would reduce the risks associated with handling.

My backup plan for a power failure is a gas fire, although we normally have only 1-2 power cuts per year and they've always lasted less than 3 hours as we are in a city. I work from home so it's most likely that I'd notice a power failure almost immediately… the only risky time would be overnight which is something that I need to think about.
 
They would make a dinner which had a good life. Short of hatching sex-linked or autosexing eggs and culling the male chicks on hatching, there really isn't any other reasonable way to raise only hens. I also always got the feeling that they do best raised in larger groups anyway, so it doesn't seem to make sense to me to cull them the moment that they do become sexable.
 
That's what I hoped you would say!
So many people hatch out of interest in the process, and then get attached to the chicks, and don't know what to do with the boys when they start to crow.
 
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