Yesterday, I made a visit to our county extension office and picked up an incubator, egg turner, and 30 fertilized chicken eggs! 21 days from now, we should have chicks. This is our first time to do this and needless to say, everyone is pretty excited.
The eggs are kept in this incubator at 100 degrees for 21 days. After the chicks hatch, we will keep them for about 3 weeks in a brooding pen (large Rubbermaid container) under a heat lamp. Believe it or not, the chicks will be ready to process at 3 weeks. Most chicks are not ready until 6 weeks, but these are fertilized eggs from Tyson. They are a hybrid chicken, bred to get big very quickly. They will not be cute little chicks very long! I'm not sure if we will have them processed somewhere, or if we will give them to someone who could keep them for eggs. We will NOT be keeping them.....unless they are in our deep freeze. Sad but true.
Henry Bob has been very interested in the goings on in the laundry room. We will have to keep a close eye on this dude.
And whatever Henry Bob is curious about, Andrew is too! We are all on guard duty for the next few weeks around here.
Have you ever raised chicks? Did you keep them? Give them away? Process them? I'd love to know!
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