T is for Trouble, S is for Solution.

In an effort to try to gain back my full flock after this winter's troubles, Dave and I have decided to set some eggs for hatching. We have easy access to fertilized eggs so we are totally cool with hatching little mutts for our own personal flock. I mean if this goes well maybe I will buy some cochin eggs or wyandottes for the future of SWood flock but for now as an experiment we are just hatching our own eggs.

I learned first how to tell if an egg was fertile by cracking open 4 of our eggs (we ate them) and carefully examining them, running back to google and then examining them again. Turns out 3 of the 4 were fertile. Thats 75%. We agreed to set 12 eggs on Friday evening so we fired up the incubator on Thursday night. Here is a picture of our incubator downstairs in our pantry. You can see our freezer, this one is just for dog food (raw fed), and you can see our cans and dry good storage. We had nowhere else to store the bator so lol i guess it goes with the food right?

We collected eggs on Thursday and Friday and then on Friday night after work, I rushed home and we carefully inspected all of the eggs according to the directions I found online. Dave and I happily set 10 eggs, our little egg family, on their spots on the turner. We congratulated ourselves and I stood there and watched the temperature like a hawk.

As soon as Dave went off to do his thing for the time being, I snuck upstairs and grabbed more fertile eggs and set them too. ha ha ha So we now have 14 little eggs on day 2 of the 21 day incubation! I eventually fessed up to Dave and told him what I did but I waited until he was in a great mood first. We have room for 6 additional hens. We also have plans for a little grower area inside the coop. They will be brooded in the house with us until they are about 1 month old, then they will go out to the coop with the rest of the ladies in the grower pen. This will hopefully make the transition easier for the introductions. I figure it will be just in time for free range time.


I will of course, update you but don't expect major news over the next few weeks. After all, they are just eggs and will remain so for 3 weeks :)