Hatching percentages

Mr. Wild was talking with another farmer recently about using an incubator and hatching success. We'd been tracking our eggs-in/hatched-out for a couple of months so we looked back to see how we'd been doing. The other farmer said he was having 10% to 18% hatch rate.

In August:
Eggs in = 111
Hatched out = 55
Un-hatched eggs = 56
Bad eggs/weeping = 0
Hatch success = (55/111) 50%

In September:
Eggs in = 127
Hatched out = 22
Un-hatched eggs = 19
Bad eggs/weeping = 86
Hatch success = (22/127) 17%

We had a few issues in September.

The first one was when one of the guys down the road decided to cut his trees and one of the branches took out the power lines. We are really rural so it was the next day before the power company fixed it. The heat & humidity were really high.

The second one was the temperature knob got bumped by the dog in a fit of excitement over a mouse in the shop (the old tack room in the barn). In the midst of us trying to get the dog out of the shop before she knocked everything over, we completely forgot about fixing the knob. It was 2 days later before we fixed it.

The third one was Mini Wild putting the eggs in the incubator and not latching it shut. Again, the heat & humidity.

So basically in September, most of the eggs were cooked. It was awful. The smell was terrible!!! In the process of cleaning it out and removing the sticky eggs from the trays, I had one pop in my face and spew foul purple liquid all over me. Mr. Wild started gagging and I dropped the tray of eggs, which then caused more of them to pop. I had to run to the house to get my clothes off and SCRUB the stench off of me. September was a total fail.

The one thing we haven't kept track of is the eggs that we've given to family & friends. Those numbers are in the dozens!

In October:
Eggs in = 197
Hatched out =
Un-hatched eggs =
Bad eggs =

I'll post these numbers next month.

When local government is way out of line - What happens in Vegas is NOT staying in Vegas!

This story Farm-to-Fork Farm Dinner Fiasco had a happy ending at the dinner party, but what is ahead for them? What is ahead for those of us who are doing the same thing they are?

Hatching out chicks

A full incubator.  I mark the date on every egg so I can keep track of "due dates"

The sponges help with the humidity inside the incubator.  The egg trays came from Cutler Supply.  The previous owner of the incubator was using regular egg cartons, this was allowing the water from the sponges to pool under the eggs causing all sorts of nastiness.  These trays are awesome!!

Some of our hatched chicks (ignore the date on the photos)

Brand new chicks drying in the bottom drawer of the incubator.

More of our incubator babies.

Goat introduction

Blue - blue-tick Boer doe

 Oreo - American Alpine buck

Cinna - Boer doe

Dirty Deeds - Nigerian Dwarf buck (soon to be wether)

Mad Hatter - Alpine/Nubian mix buck

Big Mama (back left) - Boer doe, pregnant; Silver (center) - Pygmy doe; Mad Hatter in the corner

Snickers - Alpine/Nubian mix doe with her babies, Sterling (front) buck & Fiona (middle) doe.  The lady we got her from said she was in with a Pygmy buck as well as an Alpine buck and she didn't know which one got her pregnant.  We're thinking they both did!  Sterling is much tinier that his sister and his face is different.  We're hoping he is a Pygmy mix so we can breed him with our Pygmy doe, Silver.

Oreo again with Heinz .  She's almost 10 months old now!

I need to get updated pictures of Stripies and our other doe, Alice.  Right now all the goats are on an acre with electric fence surrounding it.  We've only had a couple of escapes, mostly because the smaller ones went under it following the ducks!  We're working on getting our whole perimeter fenced with 5 ft wove wire with 2 stands of electric, it's a LOT of work!