Let me just say it scares me to realize it has probably been 25 years or so since I last helped incubate eggs! Surely I'm not that old already?!? We "accidentally" got a rooster last fall, and before I got rid of him, I figured I may as we'll let him serve a purpose-- his intended purpose as a matter of fact. Some friends had tried ordering fertilized eggs 2 or 3 times and only got one to hatch, so I thought I'd offer them some local eggs to try. Then I thought me girls might enjoy the experience as well. So after collecting the best, cleanest, eggs I could. I also decided to borrow a few blue eggs from a friend who has Easter Egger hens and a rooster. I have an Easter egger rooster and some production reds, a buff Orpington, some black sex-links, and some barred hens.
I am still hoping to borrow my friends incubator with an automatic turner, but they haven't come through quite yet, and the eggs were piling up.... So luckily my parents showed up and brought me our OLD styrofoam hova-bator. I plugged her in, and low and behold, she works! So we now have 41 eggs on their third day of incubation. I am a little worried about my temperatures (stayed low for longer than I'd have liked after adding eggs). It seems to fluctuate more than I'd like (98-101). Just praying it all goes well and it's not wasted effort in another 18 days!
