We bought a mature flock of laying chickens back in early February. All 7 of the hens are between the ages of 2-4 years old. We weren’t sure what kind of egg production to expect (they have all been laying wonderfully everyday since they got over the shock of the move) so we anticipated needing to add some chicks this year. Plus we hope to sell some of our excess eggs so we need some more layers. Eventually we plan to butcher our own chickens so our flock is definitely going to need to grow. To that end we decided to bite the bullet and purchase our first incubator, brooder, and hatching eggs. We chose Brinsea products for our incubator and brooder. The main reason we went with the brooder rather than a traditional heat lamp is because of the inherent dangers associated with the use of heat lamps. We chose the Brinsea products based on their reviews and the recommendation of the Chicken Chick. Unfortunately, the lavender Orpington eggs we ordered shipped on March 31st. Being a bit impatient to start hatching we decided to order 7 Easter Eggers to hatch first (they were much cheaper, closer, and available much sooner).
We loaded up the incubator as soon as we received the Easter Eggers in the mail. We are now at day 18 and are expecting hatchlings around the 30th. We will of course keep you updated on their progress.