Emergency Egg Incubator

Home-made emergency incubator

First pip!

The first baby fluffing up

About a month ago I was having a really difficult time keeping one of my hens from sitting on every egg she saw. I only have time to collect eggs in the evening when I get home from work some days, and I really didn't want her sitting on all of them in the meantime. I decided to number some eggs and put them in the nesting box for her so she would leave the rest of my eggs alone, and because I am always secretly wishing for more fluffy butts. :) She sat on them all night and then for an hour or two during the day, then she would leave the nest and play with her friends. Oh well, at least she wasn't sitting on all of the eggs I planned to eat or sell. After about two and a half weeks I decided to candle the eggs, just to see. It turned out that there were actually babies inside! They were due to hatch on the 21st... nothing. After another week I decided to dispose of them before they turned rotten and exploded. I am always paranoid and decided to open one up just to make sure I wasn't committing mass murder, and sure enough, there was a poor little baby inside it. I was heart broken to have killed the poor thing. The eggs stayed in the nest. After a total of four and a half weeks, after putting the eggs in the nest, I found a poor sad little chick, still wet, but dead in the nest.

Come on guys, you are almost there!

Poor sweet little baby. :( Sometimes this happens, I thought, and left the momma alone. Unfortunately, it didn't stop there. I found 4 more babies, still wet, but dead in the nest. When I reached in another egg that was pipped chirped, and the broody started pecking at all of the eggs furiously! To my horror, I realized that she had been killing the babies as they hatched! Well that was just not going to cut it! I immediately went inside and started looking for something to make a make-shift incubator out of.
I took a large soup pot lined it with paper towels, and wrapped several bath towels around it. I put wet paper towels into soda caps to keep the humidity up but the bottom of the incubator dry. Next I put a thermometer in it, a sheet of plexiglass over it and set a desk lamp with a 60 watt bulb over it. I made sure the temperature was regulated by moving the lamp up and down until it stayed at the 37.5 degrees Celsius (99.5 Fahrenheit) and didn't change. Finally I went and got the eggs, making sure not to turn them, and placed them in the incubator in the same position that I had taken them out of the nest.

Wow, hatching is hard work! He somersaulted out of the
egg, landed like this, and laid there for several minutes.
He needed some rest!  

It was risky and I wasn't sure if I had killed them by moving them, but I figured that at least they had somewhat of a chance this way. Of course I watched the incubator like a hawk, and it killed me not to mess with them. Finally one pipped! And then another, and another! Three beautiful little babies hatched! One appears to be a pure buff orphington, the second an easter egger, and the third I think is a
New Hampshire Red X Easter Egger cross. I am so excited! There are 3 more eggs that are numbered and haven't pipped. I'm not sure if they will hatch, but I am leaving them for a couple more days just to make sure. She didn't exactly sit consistently.
Several more were laid after the original batch was put in the nest, so I am still hopeful that they will make, it will just be in a week or two. I have learned that I should always have an emergency incubator on hand just to make sure, but I am overjoyed that my little thrown together incubator worked! My real incubator came in the mail today. It will soon be loaded with turkey eggs!

All three babies hatched, and proceeding to fowl... uh,
foul the incubator. 

Because I only hatched 3 babies, and they are so much smaller than the babies that are in the chicken tractor brooder, I had to improvise a make-shift brooder as well. I used a large canning pot (they were hatched in a soup pot, right? May as well stick with the theme!), lined it with a plastic bag, filled it with pine chips, and connected another desk lamp to the side. Note so self... I really need more desk lamps. Apparently they come in handy. And more thermometers too! I am nearly out! Anywho, The problem with the canning pot was that I only have large waterers and they would take up the entire place. I used a 20 ounce soda bottle, lid removed. Wrapped some sturdy wire around it tightly, so the bottle won't slide up or down. turn the bottle upside down and bend the wire to make a hook. I filled the bottle with water and chick nutrients, turned it upside down into a small bowl, and hung the bottle over the side of the brooder with the opening of the bottle about 1/3 of the way into the bowl. Once the water fills to the opening it will stop. When they drink it will automatically refill to that point. Love it!

All fluffed up and in their brooder <3

Recycled Tarp

I had to write a post to rave about my newest favorite recycling discovery! Good, sturdy tarps are always in high demand around here. From covering up wood piles and animal cages/coops/runs to keep them dry and shaded, to using them to drag leaves around the yard, I am forever in need of tarps. The problem is that they are expensive! They also tear up so easily! Tarps are forever unraveling and falling apart. What could be better than getting even sturdier than usual tarps, for free?! I can't believe I didn't think of this before! I can't take the credit for this revelation, as I read about it in my favorite blog (http://omelays.blogspot.com/). I find so many great ideas there! I had to pass it on.

I put my newest "tarp" on the turkey hoop coop, with the help of my wonderful brother. It measured approximately 15 ft X 22 ft and is made of rip-stop material. It is sturdy, but not incredibly heavy. It is simply a recycled bill board sign! I live in an area that has more than its fair share of billboard signs (as so many of us do). After reading about it, I started paying attention, and saw a bunch of signs being replaced. I simply stopped one day, asked the guy on the sign if he was going to throw it away, asked if I could have it, shoved it in my car, and brought it home! How easy is that?! I need about 20 more! It has an ad for the local news station on one side, but it is blank on the other, so I just turned it upside down. It actually looks far better than the other two I had tied together, and is larger. It is black so it is doing a good job bringing solar heat to the coop during these cooler months. I need to get a white one to replace it with during the hot summer months. How wonderful is that?!

So many of my favorite things put together! Saving money, getting good materials, and saving the earth, all at the same time! Imagine how many are thrown out when they could be used! I hope more people start doing this!