I have a brief history with trying to incubate chicken eggs. It was the happiest time of my life. Until it was just before lockdown time and Chris and I left for ONE night tgo stay at a hotel just to get away for a company Christmas party and my neighbor fried my eggs. I was so heartbroken, I had to get away from the chicken website I was a part of. Everything you'd ever want to know about chickens and it's also an online forum for people to discuss anything from chickens, ducks, geese, even other types of farm animals that live alongside their chickens.
These people that use the forum to talk about basically anything and everything are SO helpful and understanding. So, here's my quick chicken story:
Chris' dad, "Big Chris", had an incubator at his house for awhile (not sure where he got it from) but one day he got some fertilized eggs from a friend and he asked me if I would be able to incubate them. I read up SO much, I crammed in so much in like 2-3 days, I felt like I knew everything that was going to happen to them. Days went by, I candled everyday, Candling is when you put a light at one end of the egg and shine it through so you can see if the chick is developing properly. I believe they only incubate for... 28 days? See, I was on such a long chicken sabbatical that I can't remember. So, roughly 4 weeks from starting incubating until they hatch. Even if that's not the right number, let's say it is. So, I was heading toward something called "Lockdown". Lockdown is the last 5-7 days (I don't remember the amount of days either) where you don't lift the lid to the incubator to flip them over anymore. You HAVE to flip the eggs at least 2-4 times per day or the chick will grow onto the side of the egg and grow abnormally which will make it born basically handicap OR not peck out of it's shell and end up dying. Anyways, I was doing SUPER good with the egg turning everyday and I had them all marked so I knew which side they were on (X on one side, O on the other side).
So, Chris' company Christmas party came around at the time he was working for Olympus. We stayed at the Westin hotel out in Tampa for the night and I asked my very ditzy (and frankly just plain stupid) neighbor to flip them overnight. She was the only one I could trust and even then, the trust was very small. Like, grain of sand small. So, we come back the next day around noon or maybe 11am. We had swung by the feed store on the way home because Chris got his Christmas bonus check so we swung by some places and bought the kids stuff for Christmas and then we swung by a feed supply store and we got them chick feed, feeding bowls, water bowls, a heat lamp and a bulb. We came home to find them overcooked.
My heart was completely broken. There was 3 of them. It was like they were my first set of children and I lost them right before lockdown time. I was with them for 3 whole weeks, watching them grow everyday. It was hard. Then, "stupid neighbor" found a friend from down the road who owns Rhode Island Reds and got 3 of her eggs. One of them looked like it was probably in the middle of lockdown, one was probably 2-3 weeks, and the third one was barely just fertilized. All 3 in different stages. The youngest one, I watched it grow for maybe a week, but the other 2, I never saw them get any bigger when I candled. So, I lost 2 sets of eggs. The 2nd set I wasn't very attached to. It was like someone gave me their baby because I just lost mine. It wasn't the same.
My first set of eggs was supposed to hatch on Christmas morning.
I actually started with 5 eggs but one of them had a crack. I tried to duct tape it, but it just wasn't working and started smelling bad so I had to chuck it.
Then, one of the eggs just stopped developing. Apparently that's normal for them to do that sometimes, so then I was left with my 3.
These were 2 of the ones that my "stupid neighbor" brought to me and I numbered them by how far along they were. The #1 egg was basically in a lockdown that never finished so it got discarded. But eventually, these just stopped growing.
So, I learned that some eggs just stop developing which is sometimes normal. I learned that in incubators, you have to clean them out WELL before using it again because they hold onto bacteria well and the best thing to do is to set them outside in the sun for a day. The sun sanitizes (as some say) just as well as bleach just without the harmful chemicals.
So, going back to today, I was researching again at my BackYard Chickens website that I love and I came across an article that said to check with your city ordinances to see if chickens are even permitted in your area. I scoured for hours on the internet through the city of Mulberry and after everything that I read through, your property doesn't need to be designated under agriculture to have chickens at your house. Only if you're planning on selling their meat and eggs for profit. If we ever have a certain number of chickens that lay so many eggs daily that we can't eat them all or store them all, I'm sure I can make a sign out front of our house that says "Fresh eggs for sale". Something like that. I just won't be running a daily stand.
It is officially midnight now. Good Sunday morning! It rained all day Saturday so Chris wasn't able to go to work. So, he plans on working today (Sunday) and I have NO idea what I'll be doing. Clean up day maybe? I dropped Lily off with Gina right before noon on Saturday and Gina said she will bring Lily home around noon on Sunday (today).
I am going to hop off of here because I made some gnarly shredded curry chicken tacos for dinner and I have this insatiable fire in my throat that I need to get rid of before Chris starts falling asleep and leaving me in the living room alone! Sweet Dreams!
Kayla Dobbins
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